Category: Information Management

Introduction

The modern day business environment is characterized by many challenges that require the management to be apt in making decisions that will ensure that the businesses achieve their set goals and objectives (Ambrose & Schminke, 2003, p. 56). The performance of management is measured by its ability to steer the organization to the right direction in line with the set strategy mission and vision.

There are numerous means of measuring the success or failure of organizations. These range from the traditionally known financial measures such as profitability to the modern day combination of both the financial and the non-financial measures (Allen & Gregory, 2011, p. 180). This consultancy report provides an analysis of J Sainsbury Plc.

The Statements Consulted

In this analysis of J Sainsbury Plc, there were two financial statements that were consulted in order to come up with the financial analysis. The income statement is the premier financial statement that indicates whether a company is making profits or not (Madura, 1999, p. 48).

The second financial statement that was consulted is the balance sheet. This is a financial statement that indicates the financial position of a business entity at a given time. The essence of a balance sheet is to point out the sources and uses of funds that have been invested by owners and indicate the health position of the company in terms of cash availability, debt ratios and the returns on the capital employed (Supranyam, & Hasley, 2007, p. 86).

Ratios to Measure the Performance of the Company

There are three main ratios that are used to indicate the financial performance of a company. The ratios are the current ratio, the net profit ratio, and the return on capital employed (ROCE). The importance of the current ratio is that it allows the business to know its ability to meet its current liabilities using the current assets available (Wendy & Mayer, 2003, p. 88).

The non-current assets are the most illiquid assets and in a situation where the business wants to pay off the liabilities owed, it would be almost impossible to the business to convert these fixed assets to cash at their market prices (Vance, 2003, p. 102).

It is therefore admirable that a business maintain current assets that are more than the current liabilities so as to ensure that the business is able to fund the liabilities as they fall due. From the calculation below, the current ratio of J Sainsbury Plc seems okay since the company can pay off its currents liabilities using the current assets and as such, the liquidity position is healthy.

The other financial ratio used is the net profit ratio, which measures the Net profit over sales and shows the percentage of net profit per a unit of sales. For Sainsbury Plc, it is given by the following formula. The net profit percentage of the company is very low. A 4% net profit margin means that there could be other viable options where money can earn better returns than investing in J Sainsbury Plc.

The final financial ratio to be used in the appraisal of the viability of Sainsbury Plc is the return on Capital Employed (ROCE). This shows the amount of benefit the capital contributors gain for the returns by the company and is used to evaluate the appropriateness of investing in that particular company (Baker, 1998, p. 113).

Investors like putting their money of projects or investment options that given a higher rate of return that the market cost of capital or even the interest earned by depositing money in banks savings (Elspeth & Peter, 2002, p. 201). The return on capital employed of 16% is a good indicator that the company is performing well. This is because not many other investment options can guarantee a 16% return on investment and as such, the ‘predator’ company may be interested in taking over the company.

Non Financial Factors

In doing investment appraisal, the financial analysis may not be the only basis for making decisions (Henry, 2007, p. 95). This is because of the fact that the business entities operate in vast environments some which are non-quantifiable.

While a business premier aim is to maximize the shareholders’ wealth and/ or profit maximization, there are other important considerations that the business must put in place before undertaking the various projects that it intends to or making the decisions that spell out the investment path. These factors include:

Training requirements; machine B may be cheaper than machine A yet it requires specialized manpower that may be very expensive to recruit and train. Because of this, an expensive machine can be selected if it has less training requirements.

Availability of spare parts and Servicing costs; some machines are quite expensive to service, in addition, their spare parts may not be readily available and this influences the choice of which machine the organization selects (Pauline & Sidney, 2007, p. 154).

Availability of after sales service; some companies may have favorable terms of sale for their machine. For instance, they can offer after sales services and training to staff on how to use the machine. This influences the choice of the machine to be acquired.

The machines useful life; one machine may provide service to the organization for a long period compared to the other. For example, machine A may be more expensive but it provides 10 years of service. This will definitely influence the choice of the machine to be bought.

Recommendation

From the above analysis, the overall performance of Sainsbury Plc is indicative of healthy operations and the takeover process can commence. The main indicator of this is the return on Capital employed (ROCE) which indicates a 16% return in the year. This is a good performance and with the right strategic measures put in place, the company health performance can be predicted with a high degree of certainty that it will be healthy.

Investment Appraisal

Net Present Value

The net present value is a discounted cash flow method appraisal that takes into considerations the present value of the future cash flows to choose an investment decision that is acceptable (Buckley, 2000, p. 206). A project that offers maximum net present value of returns is considered the most preferred and as such, it is chosen as the preferable one. The importance of using the net present value is that it takes into consideration the cost of capital and also the all the cash flows involved (Eitemann & Stonehill, 1998, p. 128).

Using the net present value investment appraisal technique, the best machine to purchase will be machine A since it results in a higher net present value of £ 17,912.00 compare to machine B’s £ 16,185.00.

Payback Method

This is an investment appraisal method that is used to indicate the investment option that will recover the amount of money invested soonest (Shaprio, 2000, p. 188). This is used more so because businesses operate and decisions are made under uncertainty and as such, when finances are invested, the option that pays back earlier is considered less risky and hence preferable.

When appraising a single project, the management sets a predetermined payback period where the project’s viability is determined by its ability to pay back the money invested within the predetermined period otherwise the project is rejected (Shleifer & Vishny, 1992, p. 136).

Using the payback period method the following information is obtained

Using the payback period method, the company should purchase machine B since its payback period is shorter than that of machine A.

Average Rate of return

This is an investment appraisal method that looks at the investment cash outlay as a deposit and the net cash flows as an interest thus evaluating the amount the outlay generates (Van-Lelyveld & Knot, 2008, p. 108). To obtain this, the net cash flow is divided by the total investment and the rate is obtained.

Machine A

Machine B

Under the rate of return method project B is preferable since it offers a higher rate of return of 47% compared to the one of 43% on project A.

Implications of the Differences between Machine A and Machine B

The two machines are mutually exclusive meaning if we choose A, we reject B and if we select “B” we reject “A”. The company will have to pay more in the acquisition of machine “A” compared to machine “B”. Machine A costs 20,000 while machine “B” costs 15,000 even though both machines perform the same function.

Even though Machine A is relatively expensive compared to “B”, the cash flows it generates in year 1, year 3, year 4 and year 5 are higher than the cash flows generated by machine B. for year 2, the cash flows from both machines are equal. Machine “A” compensates for its higher price by yielding a higher cash flow to the company.

Similarly, when we take into account the terminal cash flow that both machines will yield at the end of their useful lives, we observe that machine “A” gives a total of 6000 while machine “B” gives only 2000. Similarly, if we take into account the total cash flows generated by each machine over their useful lives, machine “A” generates a total of 43,000 while machine B generates a total of 35,000.

Machine A yields 8,000 more compared to machine “B”. The 8000 is greater than 5000 (20,000-15,000) which is the initial difference in the cost of the two machines.

Investment Recommendation

The NPV suggests that machine “A” is the best, while the payback period and the average rate of return indicates that machine “B” should be purchased. All investments are affected by time yet both the payback period and average rate of return ignore the time value of money.

The payback period ignores the total return from machine “A”, and the timing of return before the payback period. It is true that machine “B” pays back in a shorter time, however, machine “A”, produces slow but significant returns. It should therefore not be rejected on the basis that it delays in producing returns.

Similarly, the average rate of return gives a yearly average. Even though machine “B” has a high average return, machine “A” is much superior because its returns at the later stages are quite high compared to “B”. The method ignores the fluctuations in profits from year to year.

Machine A should be selected based on the NPV results because it recognizes the fact that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, it takes into account absolute changes in cash flows, and can be effectively applied on non conventional cash flows. Machine A should be purchased.

Public Sector Investment Decisions

As opposed to the private sector, Public sector finance management is not a profit oriented undertaking. This therefore differs from the business activities where the investment appraisal is geared towards making profit. In the public sector, finance decisions are made based on the investment option that will result into a better and a more valuable social benefit to the public (Alan, 1963, p. 102).

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Non-Financial Factors

Relief of Congestion

Traffic incidences account many of the much congestion on the road. For each minute that a road is blocked during a peak-hour travel, more than four minutes of travel delay. The traffic system may be economically unviable but its potential in reducing travel delay is a key benefit that can compel the police to invest in the computer aided traffic management system.

Life Saving

Similarly, computer-aided traffic systems increase the efficiency in detecting highway incidents. Such a system can save lives especially for individuals who are seriously injured in an accident. If these systems can help the hospital personnel to arrive at the scene within the shortest time possible, then more lives can be saved. For example in incidences of head trauma, the quick arrival of medical personnel can dramatically increase survival chances.

List of References

Alan, H 1963, Public finance and budgetary policy, Praeger Publishers, New York.

Allen, N & Gregory U 2011, ‘The economics of small business finance: the roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle’, Journal of Banking & Finance , vol.7, pp. 236-49.

Ambrose, M & Schminke, M 2003, ‘Organizational structure as a moderator of the relationship between procedural justice, interactional justice, perceived organizational support, and supervisory trust’, Journal of Applied Psychology , vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 60-88.

Baker, J 1998, International finance, Prentice Hall, New York.

Buckley, A 2000, Multinational finance, Prentice Hall, New York.

Eitemann, & Stonehill, A 1998, Multinational business finance, Addison-Wesley, London.

Elspeth, J & Peter, R 2002, Fast forward: organizational change in a 100 days, Oxford University Press, London.

Henry, A 2007, The internal environment of an organization, Oxford University Press, London.

Madura, J 1999, International financial management, International thomson, New Jersey.

Pauline, W & Sidney, J 2007, ‘International financial analysis and comparative corporative performance’, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting ,vol. 3,no. 10, pp. 111-30.

Shaprio, A 2000, Multinational financial management, Wiley & Sons, New York.

Shleifer, A & Vishny, R 1992, ‘Liquidation values and debt capacity: a market equilibrium approach’, The Journal of Finance ,vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1343-66.

Supranyam, K & Hasley, R 2007, Financial statement analysis, Mc Graw Hill, New York.

Vance, D 2003, Financial analysis & decision making: tools and techniques to solve management problems and make effective business decisions, McGraw Hill, New York.

Van-Lelyveld, I & Knot, K 2008, ‘Do financial conglomerates create or destroy value? Evidence for the EU’, Journal of Banking and Finance , vol.8, pp. 2312-21.

Wendy, C & Mayer, C 2003, ‘Finance investment and growth’, Journal of Financial Economics , vol. 69, pp. 110-326.

Overview

Introducing changes into education system is not an easy task, since it involves not only the reconsideration to the role of technology in the learning process, but also a complete reassessment of the coordination between the work of different departments, changes in the process of information sharing and, most importantly, changes in the curriculum. Despite the threats that the reconsideration of the information management strategy in the UAE Academy involved, the introduction of innovational principles will be quite welcome within the academic setting, since it will allow for improving the quality of communication within the departments. After taking a closer look at the key stages of the Academy evolution, one will see that the given change is the next logical step in the Academy progress.

The UAE Academy has a long and proud history of academic thought evolution. Founded by in 1989, and providing ample opportunities for people to acquire the information and skills that will help them enroll in any college easily, the Academy has been providing its services in tutoring ever since. However, the UAE Academy is known not only as the center for students to acquire the skills that will help them be accepted into ca college; in addition, the courses offered by the UAE Academy encourage both professional and personal evolution of its visitors. In other words, the UAE Academy offers students the chance to become lifelong learners and evolve both spiritually and intellectually (UAE Academy, 2013). Moreover, the Academy claims that even the most underrepresented students will be able to become a college material.

Like any other organization, the UAE Academy has a very basic structure, including a leader (Dr. Abdullah Abonamah, CEO and the President of the establishment, his assistant, Dr. Subaran Roy, and the heads of departments, which are accountable and subordinate to the leader (UAE Academy, 2013a). The chart below shows the method of roles and responsibilities distribution within the organization:

It is remarkable that the organization is split into three key parts, i.e., the company CEO and the management, the departments of Public Relations, Marketing and Finance headed by the Technical Manager, and the departments dedicated to training and consulting the newly accepted members. The responsibilities are delegated from the company CEO to his assistant, and both are entitled to provide the Technical Manager with instructions regarding the actions to be taken. The Technical Manager, in his turn, provides his subordinates with tasks and supervises them. The physical plant layout of the organization is provided below:

Problem Definition

Despite the fact that the UAE Academy has achieved impressive success over the course of its development, in the XXI century, with the advent of new technologies, it has become increasingly difficult to provide information security within the organization. Because of the dated system of information management and the refusal to comply with the shared knowledge principle, the UAE Academy seems to have been facing problems regarding the security of the company data. To be technically accurate, the facilities provided by the technology support staff are restricted to the Internet-based electronic mail for the entire faculty to use.

Despite the fact that Internet connection is provided in the entire Academy, security policies have not been technically defined yet. As a result, the Academy is constantly under a threat of being attacked by a hacker, a malware or even simply a Trojan. Even with an impressive increase of responsibility among the users of the Internet within the Academy, the very fact that the organization is jeopardized in terms of its information safety demands that preventive measures should be taken to secure the UAE academy properly.

It could be argued, though, that the problem concerning the information security has been exaggerated. Indeed, the possibility of having a virus attack is very high even with decent security settings; the very fact of having Internet connection presupposes a certain amount of insecurity. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that the UAE Academy does not even have the secured connection to the Internet – quite on the contrary, there is no password protection whatsoever, and the only protection is provided by the NAT services, which can be viewed as a token safety measure.

Therefore, it is clear that the time to rearrange the company’s strategy of information management, especially regarding the technical aspects of the issue, has come. It is obvious that the UAE Academy needs to use advanced methods of protection against the threats to its information. However, apart from online safety, the concept of information management should be reinvented completely. It will be necessary to create several password protected databases for each of the faculties and arrange the information according to its relevance.

In addition, it is crucial that the principle of information sharing should be included into the new information management policy, since, with a large number of passwords and new rules, it will be quite complicated for the UAE Academy members to get instant access to the required information. As long as reasonable principles of information safety are established in the Academy, it will be possible to improve the processes of information acquisition, distribution and storage a few notches.

Reference List

UAE Academy (2013). About us. Web.

UAE Academy (2013a). Staff. Web.

Work structure (n. d.). Web.

In the research “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Leads to Inflated Self-Assessments” self-esteem was explored as a factor for appropriate (typical) and inappropriate (atypical) reaction of the person’s ego in relationship with competence. Moderated multiple tests revealed significant interactions between self-esteem and personality for typical and atypical reactions (Anderson, 1996). A positive relationship between self-esteem and typical changes was found under success and between self-esteem and atypical changes under failure when ego of a person denied the possibility of being incompetent. The research shows that high self-esteem in critical situations is a cause of maladaptive behaviors, including the maintenance of overly ambitions and unrealistic goals. This article states, that it is a variant of the concept of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) (Anderson, 1996). Persons with this disorder have an enormous sense of self-importance and are often preoccupied with dreams of unlimited success. They believe they are superior, inimitable, or unique as no one else and others should recognize them as such. The concept of narcissistic personality disorder has one particular feature: the individual denies his incompetence because he is unaware of his incompetence and in most cases is unable to realize this. This fact may cause serious distress and diseases of the individual. The aim is to help the individual realize and assess the problem of such hidden disorders, and then work out the strategy how to deal with such injures on a conscious level (Brehm, & Cohen, 1962).

Leon Festinger (1957) of Stanford University introduced “Cognitive Dissonance” to describe feelings of unpleasantness deep in the unconscious which lead to personality distress (Brehm, & Cohen, 1962). This statement directly correlates with the problems of the concept of narcissistic personality disorder. Psychologists developed tests to identify the presence, origin and specific area of personality’s life-space where such hurts were found. Behavior of people according to cognitive dissonance theory is that they do not like to have dissonant cognitions (Chow & Thompson, 2003). Many people argue that the necessity to have consonant cognitions is as strong as our basic desires. As a result, when individual experiences dissonant cognitions (or conflicting thoughts), he will endeavor to ignore the dissonance. According to the tests there are several ways in which person attempts to overcome or stop cognitive dissonance. Ignoring the dissonant cognition allows the individual to do things otherwise viewed as wrong or inappropriate. Another way to overcome cognitive dissonance is to reduce or substitute the importance of certain cognitions. Individual has less difficulty dealing with the dissonance but disorder remains despite the unawareness of the personality. The most common method people ignore cognitive dissonance is not to put the statement on the first place but to substitute it with the one not conflicting with the ego of a person (Chow & Thompson, 2003). Unpleasantness of the dissonant cognitions deep in the unconscious makes the person to eliminate the threat to the ego by ignoring dissonant cognitions and overpower our logic and leads us to act in ways that are not to our own benefit.

These actions make a certain model of behavior and relations to the social world of the people with narcissistic personality disorder. The model relates to behaviors and imperatives intended for control of the impressions and responses of other persons. Such reactions are also employed to diffuse or eliminate threats to the personality. The result that narcissist’s concerns about upholding positive self-evaluation triggered interpersonal behaviors that ultimately should contribute to disturbances in interpersonal relations, a hallmark of the narcissistic syndrome (Brehm, & Cohen,1962).

Narcissists’ interpersonal relations have consequences in terms of shaping outcomes and interpersonal reactions that feed back onto the personality (Hartmann, H. 1958). This feedback is not passively adopted but rather undergoes through a number of intrapersonal self-regulatory operations that include cognitive, affective, and motivational components. The model claims that these intrapersonal processes relates to the self-enhancing distortions described previously. A core intrapersonal strategy appears to be the inclination to make self- exalting attributions for positive outcomes (Rhodewalt & Morf, 1995, 1998; Rhodewalt, Tragakis, & Finnerty, 2003). This self-aggrandizing style has extreme reflections for the narcissist’s self-regulations, emotional reactions, and interpersonal behavior. The research reveals that narcissists stake out statements that they cannot assent (Rhodewalt & Morf, 1998; Rhodewalt et al., 2004). Thus, failure or the threat of failure has greater influence on their feelings of self-evaluation and behavior than it has on the self-evaluation and behavior of less narcissistic persons, probably because of the uncertainty upon which narcissistic self-evaluation is based. As is evident, narcissists’ intra- and interpersonal self-regulatory processes and self-evaluation are closely interacted. In order to maintain self-evaluation narcissists have to diffuse threats to the ego after interpersonal denial (Rhodewalt & Eddings, 2002) or when they hold negative conceptions of those personalities who pose a threat, either because they provide negative feedback or because they outperform the narcissist (Kernis & Sun, 1994; Morf & Rhodewalt, 1993). Finally, the model includes the social interrelations and background in which narcissists function. The statement is that through their actions, regulations, interpretations, and choices of that are not to their own benefit, and in order to feel good about themselves narcissists create maintain social environments that are objectively different from those of less narcissistic individuals (Campbell, 1999). This brief overview of the dynamic self-evaluation maintenance processing model of narcissism highlights its main elements and displays their dynamic interdependencies. By viewing narcissistic self-evaluation maintenance as inseparable from the social environment in which it functions, one can realize the combination of emotional instability, and interpersonal insensitivity that characterizes these individuals (Campbell, 1999).

Psychologists proposed dynamic systems to account for how people exaggerate the positiveness of their self-evaluations (discussed previously) in the face of performance evaluations by others. Steele’s (1988, 1990) self-affirmation model also suggests that if person performs poorly in a particular field, the one is likely to treat that performance result as irrelevant. Steele’s model claims that if a performance domain is important to self-affirmation, the chance of poor performance is increasing. (Schneider, 1948) has argued that person is often motivated to avoid from thinking about their personality, especially in relations with negative self-evaluations (Bennett, & Cormack, 1996). The research on self-evaluation and its involvement for performance suggests that self-affirmation is an important intrapersonal and interpersonal component.

Tesser and Cornell (1991) showed how self-evaluation maintenance and self-affirmation are interrelated (Bennett, & Cormack, 1996) The typical self-evaluation maintenance response to a negative social comparison is diffused by the opportunity to self-affirm. The opportunity to self-affirm makes a narcissist’s positive features more obvious and the need for a positive self-evaluation by other methods less necessary.

According to the self-affirmation theory, any threat to one’s sense of competence, ego or goodness can be eliminated by the opportunity to display or affirm even an unrelated aspect of the personality (Steele, 1975). However, the studies have shown that the aspect of narcissists being examined is different; participants who experience narcissistic personality disorder affirm themselves by expressing characteristics unrelated to the target behaviors.

In order to avoid distress narcissist in most cases may act without having any idea of the relations of his action with the actions of others or of the goal to which his actions lead. This is so called rationalization trap, a scheme of conscious and unconscious regulations and a definite plan the conditions of which are understood by others but not by the narcissist who acts to reduce dissonance and provides set of justifications and rationalizations.

Self-discrepancy theory proposes that a discrepancy between actual behaviors and an ideal self-guide is a meaningful model of self-beliefs. The theory claims that this pattern represents a particular psychological situation. If an individual possesses this discrepancy, the current state of his actual attributes, from the person’s own standpoint, does not match the ideal self that someone wishes or hopes that he or she would attain (Moskowitz, 2001). Thus, an actual-ideal discrepancy as a whole represents the absence of positive results. The theory also proposes that if an individual possesses an actual-ought discrepancy, then the current state of his or her actual traits, from the person’s own viewpoint, does not match the state that somebody else believes is his or her obligatory duty to attain. As the violation of prescribed duties is associated with punishment or criticism, this discrepancy as a whole represents the expected presence of something negative.

This ability of narcissists to represent the relation between two self systems introduces a new possible pattern of self-beliefs– self guide discrepancy. By searching for solutions to conflicts narcissists are more likely to create self-chosen principles to which they are personally committed and to become conscientious (Hartmann, H. 1958). Each individual can create his own viewpoint that differs from the viewpoint of others and can function as the integrated, coordinated solution to the complex array of alternative self-guides.

Self-discrepancy theory identifies five major levels in the development of the self-system. The theory proposes that self-guides are based on a history of social interactions between a narcissist and significant others involving interpersonal contingencies (Hartmann, H. 1958). It is these interactions and relations of self-other contingencies that provide the underlying meaning and importance of narcissist’s self traits. The levels of mental representational capacity are necessary conditions for the attainment of self-other contingency knowledge and self-guide (Hartmann, H. 1958).

In a military training situation, there was a test of the claim that high self-esteem individuals would overreact to ego threats and make themselves to fail. (Smith, Norrell, & L., J, 1996). The participants received false feedback from a leadership test that followed by attempted grenade tosses in which they selected the distance they would try. According to the theories, an interaction was discovered between self-esteem and ego threat such that high self-esteem persons who received ego-threatening feedback selected more complicated tasks than low self-esteem individuals, leading to marginally reduced accuracy. Thus, when not receiving an ego threat, the performance was relatively equal by high and low self-esteem persons.

Participants and Design

Eighty-four commissioning junior cadets (75 male, 9 female) ranging in age from 19 to 24 years, took part in the study as a part of their training. They were randomly chosen to receive either success or failure feedback on a bogus leadership test. Self-esteem results obtained earlier created the second independent variable.

Participants answered 10 questions, half of which were reverse-scaled, on 4-point scales ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). The range of possible scores was 10 to 40, with higher results representing more positive self-evaluations. Half of the participants were arbitrarily assigned to get negative feedback on the test and were informed that they had failed. This represented the ego-threat manipulation. The remaining participants were informed that they had passed.

After all the individuals had finished their grenade toss, a complete discussion was held. It was explained to each person that the leadership test they had taken, as well as the success or failure feedback they had got regarding this test, were fictitious.

The experiment proved that high self-esteem is associated with less adaptive behavior than low self-esteem. The research discovered that when faced with an ego-threatening stimulus, high self-esteem individuals overreacted, making what proved to be overzealous commitments.

Using such type of a test of performance that was of clear relevance to our participants, some basic pattern of results was obtained: ego threat reacted in maladaptive overreactions from high self-esteem participants.

Works cited

Anderson, N. H. (1996). A Functional Theory of Cognition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bennett, M., & Cormack, C. (1996). Others’ Actions Can Reflect on the Self: a Developmental Study of Extended Identity. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 157(3), 323-330.

Brehm, J. W., & Cohen, A. R. (1962). Explorations in Cognitive Dissonance. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Chow, P., & Thompson, I. S. (2003). The Personal Development Test and the Cognitive Dissonance Test: A Comparison. Education, 123(4), 733+.

Hartmann, H. (1958). Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation (Rapaport, D., Trans.). New York: International Universities Press.

Moskowitz, G. B. (Ed.). (2001). Cognitive Social Psychology: The Princeton Symposium on the Legacy and Future of Social Cognition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schneider, L. (1948). The Freudian Psychology and Veblen’s Social Theory. New York: King’s Crown Press.

Smith, S. M., Norrell, J. H., & L., J. (1996). Self-Esteem and Reactions to Ego Threat: a (Battle)Field Investigation. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(4), 395-404.

Wicklund, R. A., & Brehm, J. W. (1976). Perspectives on Cognitive Dissonance. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Capabilities of CIO

An aspiring CIO should practice the above soft skills in order to perform the following capabilities. CIO should be able form a strong visionary leadership among the IT department personnel. He should be able to implement IT strategy for the organization. CIO should be able to form a stable technical architecture within the organization. He should be able to clearly communicate the business priorities and should be able to link the business plans to the technical architecture. The IT skills portfolio should be manageable to different projects under the observation of CIO. Above all, it is the responsibility of CIO to create a convenient place to work. The CIO need to ensure the Information security to provide information assurance in the organization, for which he/ she need to keep a tab on the data on project and risk events. According to John W. Von Stein, as cited in Gregory S Smith, the communication of CIO should be filled with “empathy’. And the authors suggest the CIO s to be aware of their communicative strengths and weaknesses and to be aware of different communication channel. John R.Sullivan as cited in Gregory S Smith further advises the CIO to fin the convenient places to practice the public speech. Another suggestion found in the book of Gregory is to observe the peers and colleagues, orators in the professional events an forums to learn and discern good and bad communication practices an to learn more than just technical jargon.

‘Rounding’ is another aspect suggested by Nelson as cited in Gregory that has to be practiced by CIO. Daily rounds on the office grounds to have an informal communication with staff and paying a visit or giving a call to customer to know their satisfaction, feedback on quality and concerns will make a difference in effective communication.

Why Capabilities are Important to CIO

Soft skills, like communication development, improving business knowledge, improving leadership and motivational skills, developing strong negotiation skills have become necessary for the CIOs. In any organization CEO think and talk in terms of Business goals. Where as a Technical person like CIO, if speaks in pure technical terms, it creates a wide gap of communication and hinders the execution of functional operations. Besides CXOs and company executives, a CIO needs to interact with outside vendors, contractors for HR sourcing, IT staff, suppliers and Customers. However, the CIO 2004 survey as cited in Gregory S smith, reports that CIO’s success depends on effective communication and personal skill mastery in dealing with the CXOs and company executives than any other above said role. The major responsibility of a CIO in any organization is ‘Proving the Value of IT’ within to both inside and outside parties. In order to make a successful position in an organization, a CIO needs to have an ability to communicate effectively far above than the ability of technical proficiency (Gregory S smith).

IRM Context

Information Resource Management (IRM) supports the organizational Enterprise approach for IT. IRM according to Lewis et al. (1995) consists of the following dimensions. Starting with Chief Information Officer (CIO), the components include, IT Planning, IT Security, Technology integration across the organization, Advisory committees on IT decisions, IT integration, Data administration, However in order to perform this IT governance, IRM needs to identify information sources, type and value of information the resources provide, and the ways of classification, valuation, processing, and storage of that information.

Governance in IRM

Information resource management in an organization includes Information governance and Information stewardship programs. Information governance, Information stewardship, backed by technology and standards, are essential factors for in Information resource management. A logical Information resource management is required to integrate the various sources of information together, from different functions and departments of organization to be presented for a concise and logical representation.

Information governance has to be defined before implemented in order toe maintain an effective IRM. Different types, forms and the utility of Information sources have to be identified under governance program. And then this information has to be further molded under a vision aided by policies and guidelines. Information governance is the execution of authority over the management of Information assets and performance of Information functions. Maintenance of information resources in organization like, Paper or computer files, file media (CD/DVD/Hard drive), Databases, Data warehouses, knowledge bases, Software applications, books, manuals, policies, networks and telecommunications, Web sites, firewall etc., will all come under governance. Creating Identity to information is the key aspect of governance in IRM.

Technology trends, Utility in Government and EA

Data warehousing, Business intelligence are some forms technology that observe Information governance. The E-government initiatives eliminates drawbacks associate with the paper work like prolonged decision making missing data, data dependencies for file authentications etc., Another form of IRM is implementation of Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise architecture and IRM plays a role in organization in maintaining compliance, data protection, discovery, privacy, and knowledge sharing. EA contributes the IT governance in the following ways: EA provides a holistic overview; It helps to track IT targets and IT responsibilities; EA manages standards and ways of working; EA helps to identify the IT risks; EA helps in maintaining IT stability

Information Assurance

When an organization observes Information Assurance, it is assumed that it has a defined security policy, approved security architecture and implemented security features. Such organization’s IT confidence is based on analysis involving theory, testing, software engineering, and validation and verification. An Organization is said to offer Information assurance, if the CIO is capable to ensure the following five attributes – Availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.

Information availability can be termed as access to right information in the right format in the right time. Integrated information should a avoid data replication, should cover entire enterprise and all access medium. Authentication ensures that Validated and verified users and devices should distribute information for effective interaction. Confidentiality can be maintained to maintain the trust of the users with regard to sensitive data in the integrated and authenticated system. Sometimes confidentiality should also involve the aspects of physical security. Non-Repudiation means showing compliance to the norms for the integrity and origin of data at any time; such features include, Data signatures, encryption, third party validation etc. E-travel, E-payroll, E- training, E-clearance, E-authentication are some of the Government initiatives in establishing Enterprise architectures that work for the benefit of public.

However, as different stakeholders like civilians, criminals, IT staff and Government staff all perceive utility from the e-governance initiatives, the Information with such activities should maintain certain authentication tools such as, Passwords for access logins, Biometrics, Cryptography, Digital signatures, Vulnerability checks, Intrusion detection systems, Firewalls, Virus Scanners, organizational backups, multiple paths.

Role of IRM in Government

In Government, the IRM initiatives can be observed through the practice of various acts like, Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996(P.L. 104-106, Division E), E-Government Act of 2002(H.R. 2458),Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), OMB Circular A-11, OMB Circular A-130, Presidential Decision Directive (PDD)-63

CRM

Customer Resource Management is such a critical application where information has to be assured to the interest of customers and the clients between the stakeholders like organization and its suppliers or partners. CRM architecture has a concern for security of and dependability of information.

For the applications like CRM, the Information Assurance management has to be implemented to assure the aspects like – Security and Dependency.

Under Dependency, critical infrastructure like electric power grids and communication devices should be properly configured in order to maintain connectivity with the customers. Security violations can be checked through proper Information security policies. And the infrastructure management should ensure the IT operations not only through proper Network system, admin policies or back up policies but also by ensuring the communication equipment that does not depend on the Wall power.

Importance of Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture aligns IT to business needs. EA acts as common platform for the stakeholders to interact and execute functional operations. EA improves the capacity of decision making and make effective project schedules. EA architecture also escalates the hidden risks an tries to terminate them at the initial state. EA architecture provides contingency plan for key areas and documentation for every process.

Enterprise architecture has to deal with the challenges like, Concept of uncertainty, Integration of large activities, Efficiency in dealing with bulk data, Maintenance of quality in each organization, Adaptability across the organization and cost.

Role project and risk management play in Information Resources Management

A Well Planed Project Management can aid the overall Information Resource Management. An IT project management plans the resources like- humans, Physical, Infrastructure required and time and cost along with other dependencies. A Project manager coordinates all the project activities and sees to that the project is delivered in time with quality and is not overrun. Information Resource management can be build basing on the reliable data from different project to assign and allocate resources in time and within budgets. Similarly Risk management is another process that contributes a lot to the IRM in addition to the technical risks. Risk management not only identifies the risks but also assesses the nature and severity of risks to suggest recommendations on risk mitigation plans to different executing departments. While having such risks at distance, IRM can be assured by CIO in the practicing organization.

The importance of Project management can be identified by the inputs it contributes to IRM – like nature, number and abilities of human resources in the form of Intellectual property, the input and output of information sources like PCs, laptops, printers and their configuration and safety, etc.,

The risk management is important with its contributions on vulnerable point that are to be strengthened in the IRM plans and strategies, the contingency plans and back up systems required in the high risk instances in order to ensure recovery, etc.,

References

1. David J Skyme, Information Resources Management, Web.
2. Smith, Gregory S., Straight to the Top: Becoming a World-Class CIO, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2006 — ISBN: 0-471-74478-6
3. The future of enterprise information governance.
4. Matthijs van Roosmalen, Stijn Hoppenbrouwers, Enterprise Architecture Rule Management: A Synthesis of Stability and Agility.
5. Yi Qian, James Joshi, David Tipper, Prashant Krishnamurthy, Information assurance: Dependability and security of networked information systems.

The purchasing department of Company X completes a paper purchase order and sends it to Supplier A via fax, with a copy going to the accounts payable department of X. Supplier A ships the goods and they arrive at X’s receiving dock. A clerk at X’s receiving dock completes a paper form describing the goods and sends it to X’s accounts payable department. Supplier A meanwhile sends an invoice to X’s account payable department. A clerk in X’s accounts payable department would match three documents: the original purchase order, the receiving document, and the invoice. If all three documents match, an accounts payable clerk issues a paper check to supplier A.

The purchasing department of Company X completes a purchase order in an online database and sends the purchase order electronically to Supplier A via an extranet. The online database containing the purchase order is electronically accessible by the accounts payable department via an intranet. Supplier A ships the goods and they arrive at X’s receiving dock. The goods are scanned and identified using RFID. The receiving information is automatically reconciled with the purchase order in the online database. If they match the purchase order, the receiving clerk will acknowledge the acceptance of the goods by pushing a button on a wired or wireless computing device, updating the receiving status online. The electronic acceptance will automatically authorize payment by the accounts payable department, which issues an electronic payment to supplier A. If the matching fails, the receiving clerk refuses shipment and sends the goods back to suppler A.

References

Earl, Michael J., ed. Information Management: The Organizational Dimension. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Scammell, Alison, ed. Handbook of Information Management. London: Aslib-IMI, 2001.

The functions of various departments in an organization may at times prove conflicting. The functions of a department may be set in such a way that they conflict with those of the other departments. For instance, the functions of the information technology (IT) department in any organization are normally to ensure effective data storage, management, and maintenance. On the other hand, the operations department is mandated with planning the operations of the organizations while using and giving data from the IT department. The determination of how user data thus fall within the jurisdiction of the operations department. This can potentially lead to a conflict between the operations department and the IT department. This problem is solved by the Information Lifecycle Management (ILM).

Information Lifecycle Management is an approach used in data management that ensures that there is a sustainable balance between the cost of keeping and managing data and the value of the data to the organization. Like any other management philosophy, this strategy is partly new but its use in solving IT-related problems within organizations is of amazing effectiveness (StorageTek.com, 2005, p. 2). The Information Lifecycle Management process includes the following: accurate determination of the information storage requirements of the organization, comparison, and reconciliation of information storage requirements with the space available for storage, and ensuring accountability of data by developing organization-wide data rules. These steps are primarily meant to preserve data but they perform several other functions as well. The most commendable additional function they perform is the safeguarding of the relationship between departments (Arnold, 2009, p. 1).

The contribution of Information Lifecycle Management to the maintenance of interdepartmental relationships is dependent on rules for ensuring accountability of data. These rules, touching on both data storage and data use, are an integral part of the ILM and they are formulated within the organization for their appropriateness in achieving an effective ILM. As stated above, the choice of these rules forms a thin line between the presence and absence of conflict among department managers of the organization. It is thus of essence that data use and management rules involve details of interdepartmental communication and cooperation. Information Lifecycle Management touches all parts of data. These include management, use, storage, and transfer protocols which are essential in minimizing the occurrences of interdepartmental conflicts due to different and conflicting functions. For instance, detailed rules should exist in the Information Lifecycle Management system showing who between the IT department and the operations department has the final decision over data. That is, who decides what to do to data when the IT department defends its preservation and the data is declared useless by the operations department (StorageTek.com 2005, p. 2)?

As described earlier, Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) has a commendable contribution to the reduction of functional frictions between departments in an organization. Although it is IT-based, it acts as a mediator between the IT and operations departments during times of conflict. With the inevitability of the hand-in-hand operation of the IT department and the operations department of any organization, organizations need to have an Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) system in place. Without this kind of system, friction will be felt between these two departments, and this will have a negative overall effect on the productivity of the organization.

Reference

Arnold, F. (2009). Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). Web.

StorageTek.com. (2005). Information Lifecycle Management vision. Web.

The OKI Company: Knowledge Management Strategy Overview

• Learning by experience (Venkitachalam & Busch 2012) is the organisation’s key priority in KM (‘Corporate information’ 2015);
• OKI promotes active learning among the staff;
• Leaders motivate the staff by displaying keen interest in learning new information and acquiring new skills;
• However, the organisation does not have a strong KM strategy;
• As a result, the staff has a poor idea of their roles and responsibilities;
• Therefore, shared knowledge and CSR may enhance OKI’s performance.

OKI is a company known as a global business-to-business brand. Learning by experience is the key asset of the OKI organisation. Nevertheless, OKI has bee showing rather unsatisfactory results since recently due to its outdated knowledge management approach.

Shared Knowledge Enhancement through CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility Effects

• Corporate values promotion;
• Strong emphasis on the company’s ethics (Asif, Searcy, Zutshi & Fisscher 2003);
• Staff’s self-importance;
• Transformative leadership approach (Zhou & Li 2012).

Shared Knowledge

• Understanding of the significance of sharing information (Hau, Lee & Kim 2013);
• Staff’s successful acceptance of new roles and responsibilities with readiness and willingness (‘The environment and recycling,’ 2015).

In order to promote the concept of shared knowledge among the staff members, OKI will need to deploy the principles of the Corporate Social responsibility into its framework. The approach of transformative leadership will help promote change in the workplace setting efficiently.

Data Security Significance

• Cyber attacks have become increasingly threatening to most organisations over the past few years (Davies 2014);
• Hierarchical Database Management Systems must be viewed as the key means of addressing the existing loopholes in the current security management approach (Obbay 2011);
• Adoption of new encrypting techniques, which withstand cyber attacks, must take place at the OKI Company;
• The staff must be instructed on knowledge safety.

Apart from improving the staff’s performance, the company will have to take a closer look at its security system. It is suggested that Hierarchical Database Management Systems should be used to create a clear layout of the organizational structure.

Evaluating the KM System

• An adequate approach towards KM assessment must be introduced into the organisation’s framework;
• The effects of the shared knowledge model (SKM) must be compared to the ones of the system used prior to the SKM;
• A security test must be taken regularly (preferably once a week) for detecting and addressing the emerging security issues;
• The staff’s motivation and engagement rates must be assessed regularly so that the leadership approach could be altered if needed.

The KM approach suggested for the OKI Company will need to be assessed. The effects of its adoption will be evaluated and compared to the outcomes of the previous KM system adoption. Thus, the OKI leaders will be capable of defining further patterns of the company’s evolution.

Reference List

Asif, M, Searcy, C, Zutshi, A & Fisscher, O A M 2003, ‘An integrated management systems approach to corporate social responsibility,’ Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 7–17.

‘Corporate information’ 2015, OKI, Web.

Davies, A 2014, A security analysis of TrueCrypt: detecting hidden volumes and operating systems, Information Security Group, Egham, Surrey.

Hau, Y S, Lee, B & Kim, Y G 2013, ‘The effects of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions,’ International Journal of Information Management, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 356–366.

Obbay, S R 2011, Types of database management systems, Bright bulb, Web.

‘The environment and recycling’ 2015, OKI, Web.

Venkitachalam, K & Busch, P 2012, ‘Tacit knowledge: review and possible research directions,’ Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 357 – 372

Zhou, K Z & Li, C B 2012, ‘How knowledge affects radical innovation: knowledge base, market knowledge acquisition, and internal knowledge sharing,’ Strategic Management Journal, vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 1090–1102.

There are five main stages that influence the decision, which include awareness that the need exists, searching for information, considering alternative options, making a purchase decision, and behavior after the purchase. Awareness of the existence of a specific problem or need and understanding what type of product can solve or satisfy it (Nam et al., 2019). Without awareness of the need, the purchase of a product is impossible. Understanding that the awareness exists is caused by ordinary internal needs or external ones that are affected by advertising. The consumer is looking for information about a product that can meet their needs. They are trying to find the best solution based on sources of information that they trust.

The consumer evaluates and compares the solutions found in studying information about the problem and its solution. Usually, consumers compare several found options – deciding which one will suit them best. At this stage, the consumer chooses the product’s attributes that are significant for themselves and compares them with different brands (Nam et al., 2019). This stage is carried out through greater customer engagement, that is, with maximum interest, they compare several brands; if they are not affected, they stop at one. After evaluating several brands, the consumer decides to buy one of them. Consumers make a purchase and then they realize whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their decision. This is influenced by the level of expectations from the product, which are formed mainly by advertising.

The task of marketers is to consider all possible factors that harm the choice of buyers and level them. The task of marketers is to study the customer’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the purchase (Nam et al., 2019). This is necessary to understand what needs to be finalized so that the client is delighted and what exactly attracts consumers. The problem for marketers is that the product’s characteristics that cause delight become expected after a while, so marketers must constantly look for new ways to evoke a sense of admiration among consumers.

Reference

Nam, D., Lee, J., & Lee, H. (2019). Business analytics adoption process: An innovation diffusion perspective. International Journal of Information Management, 49(1), 411-423.

Many organization managers in the current information age have found themselves handling one major problem: managing an upsurge of information flow through their organization, while making it beneficial to the employees and the organization.

Bellinger, Castro & Mills (2004) explain the data, information, knowledge and wisdom hierarchy and how managers can understand this hierarchical order can be utilized effectively. The purpose of this paper is to define these terms and highlight how managers can beneficially manage this “Information Tsunami” flowing into and though their organizations

Bellinger, Castro & Mills (2004), argue that information “is data (raw, meaningless symbols) that has been given meaning by way of relational connection”, within the context of the organization.

Green (2010) states that knowledge and wisdom is information that is personal, contextual and subjective. Knowledge and wisdom is acquired experientially by application of information contextually. It therefore exists in people’s minds and can be stored in instructional manuals for future reference.

Organizations have found themselves receiving loads of Information, most of which is unnecessary and potentially overwhelming.

Organizations will therefore need to filter through, select and summarize useful information using various tools such as the Information Technology tools e.g. the Web; which can improve knowledge construction and induce meaningful learning, indexes and references (Blair, 2010; Miller; 2010; Cartelli, 2007).

After careful selection, information managers need to organize and store this information properly for future use under titles, headings, topics and case studies (Marks, 2010). When this information generates some value for the organization, (Levinson, 2010) calls it “a knowledge based asset,” which can be categorized into explicit and tacit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be documented in instructional manuals, while tacit knowledge is knowhow how that is acquired through experience and only exist in peoples minds.

Managers can share explicit knowledge through manuals, journals and continued educational courses for employees (Green, 2010). Tactic knowledge, found in people’s minds, creates a challenge in its self, as it is harder to identify, generate, share and manage. However, Levinson (2010) suggest that it is possible to do so by creating a social network at the work place.

This network creates a platform for people to contact each other within an organization. People work together and share the knowledge. Managers should establish personal and professional contact with the employees to identify who possesses expert knowledge, and in what field. They therefore assign them junior working partners to whom they intend knowledge transfer.

This gives the juniors being mentored an opportunity to acquire experiential knowledge from experts by directly working with them. Mentoring in an organization has double effect; it is a effective way to transfer (tacit) knowledge and manage junior employees (Connor et al, 2000).

To make this work, organizations will ensure “functional social environment and communication network, which facilitates easy flow of information” throughout the organization (Cartelli, 2007)

In conclusion, for an organization to avoid choking under information tsunami, information managers must first identify the organizations information needs. What exact information does an organization need and for what reason?

This will direct information managers to the exact information search tools they will use to filter through, generate, summarize and process the required information. This process of filtering information requires “skillful judgment” as it is tedious and laborious (Blair, 2010). Organizations must therefore invest a lot in information management if they are to benefit from the information superhighway.

Reference List

Blair, A. (2010). Information Overload, Then and Now. The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. Web.

Cartelli, A. (2007). Socio-Technical Theory and Knowledge Construction: Towards New Pedagogical Paradigms? Web.

Connor, M. P., Bynoe, A. G., Redfern, N., Pokora, J., & Clarke, J. (2000). Developing senior doctors as mentors: a form of continuing professional development. Report Of an initiative to develop a network of senior doctors as mentors: 1994-99. Med Educa., 34(9): 747-53.

Green, P. (2010). Social Media Is Challenging Notions of the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy. Web.

Levinson, M. (2010). Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions. Web.

Marks, O. (2010). Information Clutter Busting & Organization. Web.

Miller, C. (2010). For Google, the Browser Does It All. New York Times Business. Web.