Category: Uncategorized

Higher Professional Level

Acknowledgment

I am thankful to many of my colleagues and professors whose help led to the paper submission. I want to thank my tutor for recommendations, research support, and help in organizing the paper, and to the management staff of the organization, I am working with.

Executive Summary

Culture is a part of our lives that makes us who we are. Corporate culture is an identity of a particular organization that makes it unique in its way. International Power Plc is an independent power generation corporation with currently has around 45 power plants along with a chain of businesses across the globe. The culture at International Power is very strong; they believe in constant changes and keeping up with the international standards. Also, the team structure suits the culture of constant change because teams are also flexible.

With problems facing the company, several steps need to be taken to bring the company back to its feet. A change in the mission and vision is the first step; focusing on international competition based on efficiency and shifting the structure had to be switched to the more modern team structure.

Change is vital for success. There is a severe need for employees and organizations to overcome their reluctance for change that will come when a team of foreigners will come to work for a short period. This evolves the culture of strengthening International Powers horizontal structure; a culture where employees work together as friends and openly discuss their issues and resolve them based on effective negotiations instead of fighting.

Introduction

International Power Global Developments is a private company. Keeping the current advancements of the world in mind, there is a need to understand the requirement of a horizontal/flat structure. Vertical hierarchies were very common in the olden days, but with time, more team-based cultures are being explored. With increasing uncertainty in the business world and economy, some organizations are compelled to change the way they operate. In this continuously advancing world of today, managers have to act as the change agents in the organization; it is their responsibility to exercise their role as leaders¹.

Research Methodology

The culture and need for change were studied basically by keeping the structure under examination. Also, their vision was understood and analyzed to figure out their goals and what needs to be changed with the changing environment. The website and publications about this organization were of great help as secondary sources to judge how well the employees had been functioning under certain conditions and structures. Additionally, one on one interviews were conducted with the employees at different hierarchical levels. Primary sources were not a hassle because being part of the organization; I could easily get access to them. Surveys were prepared but the questions were covered during interviews.

Organizational Background

Industry Background

The industrial sector that International Power belongs to is the energy sector. Not a lot of people, especially fresh graduates enter this industry; but to think of it, this is one of the most important sectors for a country. If this sector runs fine, then only the other sectors can survive. This industry is, however, facing difficulties because, with increasing time, the resources are depleting. Therefore, many are trying to come up with sustainable ways to produce so that in the future, our supply does not turn into shortage.

Company Background

The Company

International Power, a private limited company, is one of the principal electricity generating companies which has a network which is spread all over the world in 21 different countries, stretched over various continents. Its headquarters are in London, and its branches are located in various cities and countries and within these cities, there are further divisions and multiple locations for the power plants

The Product

International Power plc is an independent power generation corporation and the businesses it is involved includes

• production of freshwater through desalination of seawater;
• production and dissemination of steam;
• district heating via cogeneration;
• coal mining using the method of open casting; and
• transportation of gas and even the production of renewable energy

The Market

By doing business in different fields and geographical divisions; International Power plc plans to diversify risks. This portfolio management system helps the company to save themselves from specializing in one field because in case things do not work out in one field, the company can always diversify those risks and compensate for them by utilizing the profits gained in another field. Additionally, it provides the company with multiple opportunities to earn profits and try to work their luck in different playing fields; thus leading to value creation.

Vision

To ensure that the customers are receiving uninterrupted electricity services and that International Power Electricity Providers is adding value to their customers and employees lives along with contributing to national growth by reviving competition.

Mission

International Power Electricity Providers has one major aim  to increase the efficiency and productivity of the organizations by reviving competition in the market. Additionally, it has a mission of providing loyal customer service that is not only reliable but also affordable. Moreover, it also wishes to provide developmental opportunities and a platform for leadership and returns to its employees and stakeholders.

My Department and its Role

The department that I primarily work for is the Finance and Accounting Department. This department deals with the daily transactions of purchases, expenses, budgeting, controlling, process costing, etc. All accounts are kept by this department  the deposits and withdrawals are all handled too. The creditors and debtors all deal with this department and because of the crucial role of this department; reporting daily is done to the Business Administrator.

My Role in the Department

My role is as a Management Trainee in the Finance and Accounting Department. My job description is: Verification of bills received from suppliers; keeping track of the flows for any discrepancies; Process bills in Maximo & Sun accounting system; watching out for any errors made and correcting them if needed; Preparation of withholding Tax return Preparation of computerized records and schedules of accruals & misc. payable; Attending queries from budget holders/suppliers; ensuring that their knowledge about the company and specifically about the deal is apt.

Importance of Culture and Values

Organizational culture is a collection of chief principles, philosophies, customs, functioning mannerisms, work morals, worker performance, and fundamental business ethics on which the company depends. All the conduct and activities happening in the organizations are a manifestation of the culture at the office. Corporate culture then becomes a guideline for them and their behavior. Values symbolize stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is significant to us.

They manipulate our choices and our understanding of what is ethical. Values have become more vital in organizations because of globalization, the need to restore command-and-control systems, and the rising strain for organizations to engage in good practices. Keeping in mind the fact that the mission and the vision of the organization hint towards constant environmental updates and keeping up with the pacing world, the culture should be of adaption to the external environment. ²

Internal Analysis and Findings

The internal analysis of the company is the internal strengths and weaknesses. The chart in the Appendix reveals that the company was running on obsolete machinery that was working beyond its useful life and thus wasnt efficient. Furthermore, the employees were least bothered about the working conditions and the only thing keeping them at work for a steady paycheck rather than making an effort to earn the salary. The company in the past had requested new machinery and funds from foreign investors but they have always declined due to stringent political forces in the market. However, the rising demand for the products along with many local resources, show a favorable scenario for the company. And through its international affiliation and brand name, the company can boost its image further and attract foreign investment.

Previous Company Structure

Organizational structure is the way the organization works and the way people are placed either in teams or departments; basically, the setup of the organization ensures that the running of the operations is smooth.

Earlier International Power used the functional structure. Functional structures are more departments oriented  different activities are divided into different functions, that is, we have a different function for accounting, marketing, finance, and sales; and these functional departments excel at what they do individually but have no communication with one another, that is, department integration is missing.

New Company Structure

International Power shifted to a more complex is a cross-functional team-based structure, which includes various kinds of teams which includes temporary teams, permanent teams, task forces, etc. it is like a matrix structure where any member can form teams across the board as seen fit.

When one works on a team, he is not restricted to just a few ideas and perspectives; on a team, there are several individuals in different varieties. This leads to several different perspectives, ideas, skills, and expertise³. This is the best-suited option because it improves results and increases efficiency. Also, this is mostly accepted because when working in teams, the workload is also shared and different perspectives give you a better way to judge the situation.

Effect on Culture and Values at International Power

Earlier on, the functional structure at the company had a very rigid hierarchy, thus, the employees never got a chance to be at ease and be friendly enough to share their views openly and were never sure of the reactions and tolerance levels. Now with teams, the culture of friendliness has strengthened because everybody feels that they can share their perspectives openly without being judged. This is the structure that compliments the concept of having friendly relationships at the workplace.

International Power places heavy emphasis on its internal values of working together as a closely-knit company and being socially responsible. However, these values may only be good for the paper as in the current working conditions International Power has to go a long way to these values a reality.

Effect on Mission and Vision at International Power

With a change in the mission and vision of International Power, which focused on international competition based on efficiency, the structure had to be switched to the more modern team structure that is essentially a cross-functional structure⁴. The reason for this was that the production and strategizing was more efficient, less time-consuming, and more effective this way. This will help to match the externally fit in the environmental mission statement. This again directly and indirectly leads to a friendly environment. And keeping a friendly and energetic environment is a part of starting a new part of the organizations life where a diverse workforce from across boundaries will help make the company a better proposition for the future.

Current Cultures

What is Organisational Culture?

Organisational culture is a set of core principles, beliefs, customs, operational styles, work ethics, employee behavior and fundamental business ethics on which the business is based. All the conduct and actions taking place in the organizations are a manifestation of the organizations corporate culture.

The Cultural Shift

The culture till a decade ago at the company was very functional and hierarchal. Today, employees work together with a flexible and friendly attitude; this was evident when we held a general discussion about this topic over lunch in a casual atmosphere where people shared their views. The culture is such that employees, who previously had ego problems, now are on friendly terms with all other employees. Earlier on, people focused more on their achievements. But with increasing global competition, they have all come to realize that there should only be healthy competition which should lead to the achievement of company goals so that the competition remains not between the members, but the company and its rivals.

Hybrid Culture  Individualistic and Grouped

The hierarchal structure had bred the employees as individualistic and self-dependant people, which is still visible in the upper echelons of the management structure. However, at the lower level, the team-based and cross-functional structures are apparent. The organization takes pride in its hybrid mix culture where an outsider might consider such a culture as non-professional and non-standardized. The organization on the other hand feels that this sort of hybrid is necessary to get the work done. While at the upper levels work is more decision-oriented and requires tough autocratic control, therefore, an individualistic culture, on the lower level a group-based culture is required to keep the workers motivated.

Subcultures and Learning Culture

Having a subculture of a casual team-based approach to work, control tends to be difficult at times. And for this reason, the team leader is chosen is often the toughest employee of the lot that can command the team members and keep their attitudes within working terms. The important thing about this is that this way, the employees dont feel under pressure from the team leader and the team leader can enjoy with the team till the time the work is being accomplished. Therefore learning and adapting to new things is easier and at times quicker. Although the organization cannot be regarded as a learning organization, the competition between the cross-functional teams make the teams go the extra mile and adopt learning style to become a better team.

Environment Analysis

McKenzies 7 S

PESTLE

SWOT Analysis

Identification of Change Options

To deal with the issues at hand, managers recommended seeking the help of professionals who can conduct holistic research about the company and how the problems can be solved. This option although good seems unfeasible to start due to the chances of company secrets being exposed to outsiders and also because the cost involved is too high to expand at this time of economical crisis.

To meet the need for hi-tech machinery and expertise, foreign help can be attained at a low cost from China. However, this would mean inducting Chinese staff temporarily to train the local staff which in turn can be difficult due to cultural differences. Also, the local staff would not want an outsider to take control of the operations especially at a time when job security is of utmost importance.

The organizational structure is one point where the whole administration agrees to keep it cross-functionally team-based. The organization is already reaping the rewards due to this new structure and would like to keep it this way where the employees are getting settled into.

Most of the options identified require a lot of investment and money is a problem for the organization. To solve the companys problems on a larger scale, the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) plan of Chinese machinery looks seems most feasible financially and is suitable for the company at this point. Although this plan may be acceptable for the local staff, the company has changed strategies to make this option work for them.

Devising Change Plan

Organizational success comes from the ability to keep evolving according to the needs of the people it is serving. With research and analysis, the organization gets to know at what level it needs to implement some changes so that it can develop strategies to do so. This strategy is necessary because almost all employees resist changing at first and just like in this case they are resistant due to fear of job security. This resistance change is overcome by employing effective strategies.

Unfreeze- Change-Freeze

Usually, one of the earliest methods that have been developed was developed by Kurt Lewis and it is a three-stage Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze process. The first step involves overcoming the practices and changing the inertia so that new ideas and methods can be adopted. Then the change is brought about in the organization and is reinforced by using various methods. The third step involves reinforcing those practices so that the new ones become the practices of the organization.

ADKAR

Another model that is used is called the ADKAR model, which means Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement⁵. These steps are followed in line and the idea is reinforced in the end, but the awareness about the change and creating a desire for that change is really important for the organization management. This can be done by linking the change practices directly with intrinsic or extrinsic rewards; whichever is more appealing to the respective employees.

For the process of change required at the organization, the classic Kurt Lewis 3 phase model of change will be applied.

Change Implementation Plan

The change implementation plan can be divided into several steps. They are broken down as

• Research the External Market  5 Months

  • Figure out what the international standards are; so that International Power can also move in this direction.
  • Amend production methods
  • Market in such a way to make the products stand out and beat the competing goods.
  • Involve employees and explain the need for change
  • Take feedback and integrate into the pan
• Plan Concrete Steps  5 Months

  • Educate and clarify all misconceptions of employees and communicate to them the correct message. Once they understand the true essence of change, they are more likely to agree to allow change.
  • Hold sessions discussing the entire plan with the employees. They should also welcome opinions and criticism and think over it
  • Resisting employees can be dealt with rewards, force, or termination
• Implementation  2 Months

  • Opt for a session, a motivating speech, and passion to take the company to the top.
  • Willingness to remove hesitation of people and trying to make them understand the good and get them on board, is needed.

The department responsible would be mainly administration and Human Resources. However, every department should ideally participate and help their departments in understanding the need for change. Also, every department head needs to be involved to see what changes are required in their department and whether all changes are cross-functional and in alignment with each other. This will also help in avoiding the risk of implementing too many things at the same time because not a lot of change can be handled. A budget of $25,000 has been allocated for this task, the bulk of which will be utilized on market research while about $10,000 will be spent on seminars, conferences, and training.

Proposal of Recommendations

Dear Sir/Madam

Change is vital and a major inclination towards success. However, if rightly implemented, then only can it result in something productive, or else, it can backfire and the settled system that was working earlier will also be ruined. Thus, it is important to keep certain critical things in mind. I have a few recommendations that Id like to share:

• Employees should be involved at all stages of change so that they feel a part of it and it does not come as a shock to them.
• International standards should be met but local realities should also be kept in mind because not everything suits your organization.
• Feedback of changes should be timely, corrective, accurate, specific, and relevant.
• Mission and vision should be in line with the organizational culture.
• Best case practices from other International Power countries should be used so that the credit can be increased.
• Reports of improvement and how the employees have benefited through change should be produced
• Thorough external market research and environmental research should be conducted because without that the company can never know exactly what needs to be changed in the company
• Estimation of growth and benefits should be calculated to show how much they can benefit  statistics are something tangible and in number so it maybe is convincing.

I hope that these recommendations may be of some use to you and the organization as a whole. Thank you.

Conclusion

International Power is one of those organizations that keep up with the advancing world. They amend their vision and mission if needed; bring changes to their culture so that they can achieve a fit with the environment. As we can see, they changed not only their structure but understood how important the values and cultures of an organization are and amended those too. Also, not always is change accepted by the organization but there are several methodologies to deal with this situation; first is to realize why there is a resistance, and then to adequately develop strategies to deal with it.

Bibliography/References

Ancona, D., Backman, E. and Bresman, H. (2008). X-Teams: New Ways of Leading in a New World. Ivey Business Journal.

Aparna, J. and Hyuntak, R. (2008). Considering Context in Team Diversity Research: A Meta-Analytic Review. McGraw Hill.

Burge, R. (2008). Ready Set Change, Industrial Engineer.

Burke, W.W. (2002), Organization Change: Theory and Practice. 1st edition. Sage Publications, Inc.

Campbell, K. (2002). Influence employees the right way, Industrial Management. Web.

David, F. (2008). Strategic Management. 12^th Edition. Prentice Hall.

Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing Change: The Art of Balancing, Harvard Business Review.

Dudik, E. (2000) Strategic Renaissance: New Thinking and Innovative Tools to Create Great Corporate Strategies&Using Insights from History and Science. AMACOM.

Fuentes-García, F., Núñez-Tabales, J. and Veroz-Herradón, R. (2008). Applicability of Corporate Social Responsibility to Human Resources Management: Perspective from Spain. Journal of Business Ethics. Volume 82. pp27-44.

Heathfield, S.M. (2000), The Bottom Line for Employee Retention. Web.

Hope, P.L. (1996). Demographic Diversity, Conflict, and Work Group Outcomes: An Intervening Process Theory. Organization Science. Vol. 7, No. 6, pp.615-631.

Kaler, J. (2000), Discussion: Putting ethical theory in its place. Business Ethics: A European Review. Volume 9 Issue 3, Pages 123  220.

Kilduff , M., Angelmar, R. and Mehra, A. (2000). Top-Management Team Diversity and Firm Performance. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Vol.11, Iss.1. pp. 21  34.

King, N. and Anderson, N. (2002), Managing Innovation and Change: A Critical Guide for Organizations. 2^nd Edition. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Knight D., Pearce, C. L., Smith, K.G.

Introduction

Leaders are vision careers. As heads of organizations, leaders are anticipated to have the ability to manage their emotions so that they (emotions) do not get out of control irrespective of the challenges that leaders go through while attempting to enhance compliance to their visions (Parker, & Sorensen, 2008, p. 13). Over the last decade, the economies of the world have experienced some of the most turbulent times in history. In fact, several countries have recently successfully emerged as business leaders in business outsourcing and contract manufacturing. In fact, they have opted to offer their services in many parts of world. Consequently, numerous questions have been posted on the effect of emotional intelligence and leadership style in the realization of this success. Scholarly researches that have been conducted regarding business leadership contend that emotional intelligence is directly correlated to organizations performance outcome (Goleman, 1998, p.47: Parker, & Sorensen, 2008, p. 13). Guided by the results of the studies, it sounds imperative to question whether emotional intelligence is an indispensable attribute of leadership and or a necessary leadership style that translates to organizational success. Leaders have total trusts of their staff. They speak kindly and eloquently besides paying attention to the concerns of the people they work with as a team. In addition, they are ease to interact with, and have the ability to make well-informed decisions (Kerr et al., 2006, p.266: Leban & Zulauf, 2004, p.556). While these traits best describe a hypothetical leader, they are also the traits of people who have elevated levels of emotional aptitude. Stemming from this argument, the paper poses the question of whether there exists a solid link between emotional intelligence and leadership styles. The proposed research also endeavors to examine and evaluate how styles of leadership that are deployed by leaders are related to their emotional intelligence. The aim is to determine whether emotional intelligence has impacts on leadership styles. To realize this aim, literature review on how emotional intelligence influences contemporary issues surrounding emotional intelligence and leadership styles is conducted. In the proposed research, this information will assist in providing a clear guideline for research by focusing on the influences, trends, and factors applying to variables of the research study: emotional intelligence and leadership styles. This paper, therefore, conducts a literature review of scholarly work on the topic of emotional intelligence and leadership styles as a milestone for conducting a meta-analysis research on the link between emotional intelligence and leadership style in an effort to confirm the theory that emotional intelligence enhances the effectiveness of leaders.

Methodology

In the proposed research, a collection of scholarly works on leadership styles and emotional intelligence will be critically analyzed to establish the findings on the link between emotional intelligence and leadership styles. In this endeavor, the reliability and validity of the studies considered is crucial. For this purpose, an effort will be made to determine whether the results that are obtained from the different data collection methodologies are valid and reliable in relation to others by selecting scholarly works or utilization in the literature review that only bears the search terms emotional intelligence and leadership style. This literature review therefore will be carried as a search on the relevant publications detailing the connection between leadership style and emotional intelligence. The search will be conducted using the various key words set out in the introduction followed by a thorough scrutiny of the literature found for any relevant reference materials. Analysis will follow with only the publications made in the English language being included. The reason for the choice of this methodology is due to the limitation of time and the effectiveness obtained in previous studies (Parker & Sorensen, 2008, p. 13).

This research rests on the theoretical hypothesis that emotional intelligence may act to enhance the effectiveness of leaders. Therefore, a review of the scholarly works on leadership styles and emotional intelligence in the proposed research is conducted with anticipations of finding a direct relationship between leadership styles and emotional intelligence. However, depending on the findings of the authors of the scholarly works considered in literature review, this anticipated finding is hypothetical and hence subject to confirmation thus making a critical analysis of the literally works essential

Literature Review

Leadership is the vessel utilized by organizations to gain success in terms of performance. Since leadership sets the visions for any organization, the feelings and perceptions of people are essential to be incorporated in the developed visions. From this argument, effectiveness of leaders is measureable from the extent to which she or he articulates the ways of thought and feelings of people into the leadership visions. Indeed, effective leadership is an essential element in a rapidly changing organization. This kind of leadership has been identified as being fostered by emotional intelligence (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001, p.98). Arguably, in this sense, emotional intelligence defines the capacity of leaders perceived as effective to analyze peoples feelings and perceptions in an effort to enact an appropriate strategy to align them to the common organizational goal. To proactively understand these feelings and perceptions of people towards certain phenomenal issues that are of public interest and or organizational interest, interaction between leaders and people being led is necessary. This claim calls for participatory style of leadership. Hence, emotional intelligence and leadership style become related.

In the context of the above argument, an impression is created for scholarly agreement on the definition of emotional intelligence. Unfortunately, this is not the case since, even although emotional intelligence may be an essential characteristic of an effective leadership, its harmonious definition is nonexistent. For instance, Palmer et al. (2001) defines emotional intelligence as the capacity to comprehend, acknowledge, and handle both ones own and other peoples feelings (p.5). From this perspective, emotions are personal feelings that may give rise to conflicts between people working in an organization. Arguably, in the context of this definition, the main role of leadership in an organization is to mitigate incidences of occurrence of conflicts instigated by differences in feelings and perceptions of people that he or she leads. From a nursing context, Smith, Profetto-McGrath, and Cummings (2009) define emotional intelligence as an aspect that enables leaders to develop the capacity to control and monitor the performance of the subordinates without infliction of fear and prejudice to them. In this context, emotional intelligence encompasses the capabilities that are distinct though complementary to cognitive or intelligence capabilities that may be measured by intelligence quotients. Therefore, emotional intelligence is an essential quality that enables a leader to proactively understand the environment in which he or she works. This environment is characterized by people with different aspirations, understanding, and mechanisms of responding to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli. In this regard, emotional intelligence is crucial in helping a leader to identify the likely ways of responding to the stimuli particularly the response that would prejudice the operation of an organization, which she or he leads.

The above argument links with Cote et al. (2010) insight that emotional competences are essential in aiding to shape the employees perceptions in their work and reflections of their needs (p.497). The question is how the components of emotional intelligence relate with the success of an organization since an appropriate leadership style is the one that would enhance the performance of an organization. Golemans extensive research on emotional intelligence gives a response to this query. He found that both technical skill and intelligence quotient contributed much in the determination of job performance of a manager. In this regard, emotional intelligence is directly correlated with job performance (Goleman, 1995: Goleman, 1998). Based on these findings, effective leadership entails complex processes often characterized by influence processes, interaction of various actors (followers and leaders), and a range of myriads of possible anticipated outcomes. In an organization, leaders play a variety of roles including serving as sources of inspirations, inducing organization changes through corporate leadership, and serving as the main sources of organizations power and visions.

One of the dominant questions in the discussion of emotional intelligence and leadership styles is how emotional intelligence can help a leader to derive an effective leadership style. To answer this question, it is crucial to consider some of the works that have been forthcoming on the field of psychology. For instance, according to Abraham, the results of his work in this field showed that emotional intelligence and satisfaction at the workplace are related in an intimate way (2000, p. 19). He describes that emotionally intelligence leaders are thought to be more committed to the organizational functions, and are happier in effect compared to their colleagues with an overall better achievement of organizational goals (2000, p. 29). Several publishers and researchers in the same field share these sentiments, and there are broad and general agreements that the degree of emotional intelligence is relatively proportional to leadership qualities and style portrayed at the workplace (Abraham, 2000, p. 28).

Individuals who are emotionally intelligent are also described as able to take advantage and use of positive emotions to envision substantial improvements in organizational functioning (George, 2000, p.12: Dulewicz, 2003, pp.193-210). George also stated that these individuals use emotions to improve their decision-making in a bid to instill a sense of enthusiasm, trust, and co-operation in other employees through interpersonal relationships (2000). Arguably, Dulewicz and George intertwine emotional intelligence with the subject-oriented form of leadership.

Research that relates effective leadership styles and emotional intelligence in the workplace has mainly focused on the effects of emotional intelligence on leadership styles. For example, Burns (1978) stated two leadership styles that were of significance (p. 29) for any emotionally intelligent leader. The first one that Burns stated was transformational leadership where the leader raises the needs and motivations of followers besides promoting dramatic changes in individuals, groups, and organizations (Parker, & Sorensen, 2008, p. 13). The second leadership style that Burns stated as being influenced by the emotional intelligence is transactional leadership. A transactional leader was defined as a person who has the ability to predispose people to deploy behaviors that are transformational in their work environments (Burns, 1978, p. 12). Arguably, from the perspective of Burns, emotionally intelligent leaders adopt transformational and transactional forms of leadership.

Bass advances Burns characterization of emotional leaders. In his literature, he integrates transactional and transformational leadership with the suggestion that they are incredible tools for perceiving various situations accurately, with emotional expressions, appraising, accessing, and generating various emotions especially when emotions are the determinants of thoughts and decision-making processes adopted by individuals (Bass, 1985, p. 38: Higgs, 2003, pp. 273-284). Basss description of the two styles of leadership are not remarkably different from those by Burns since he tries to further the aspects that Burns had tried to explain about these leadership styles (1985). According to him, a transformational leader possesses a high degree of emotional intelligence and is able to perceive and evaluate the extents to which various anticipations of subordinates can be attained in an accurate way (Bass, 1985, p. 38). Bass then described a transactional leader as one who prefers a leader-member exchange relationship whereby the leader fulfils the needs of followers in exchange for their performance thus meeting the basic expectations (1985, p.29). Arguably, the needs of the followers discussed by Bass are influenced by individualistic interpretations of various phenomena. In this interpretation, emotional intelligence plays a pivotal role.

These leadership styles highlighted above were described in detail by other authors after Bass and Burns. In fact, Lowe and Kroeck (1996) state that transformational leaders are focused on finding new ways of working by creating new opportunities in the organizations. Emotional intelligence is evident in this assertion since these leaders prefer effectiveness to efficacy (p. 23). These are also the styles of leaders who orient their subordinates towards performance beyond the established standards and goals-emphasizing employee empowerment rather than dependence (Lowe & Kroeck, 1996, p. 98). For transactional leadership, Lowe and Kroeck described this style as one where the leader the headship is exercised on a leader-member basis with the head meeting the demands of his or her people in return for their exemplary performance thus achieving the objectives of his or organization (1996, p. 37). The leader also prefers risk-avoidance. Such a leader will instill self-assurance in the people he or she leads in a bid to motivate them to meet the set goals and objectives (Lowe & Kroeck 1996, p. 98). Amid the discussions of transactional and transformational leadership as pillars of emotionally intelligent leaders, it is arguable that, for the success of an organization in a dynamic environment, it is desirable that all organizational stakeholders uphold concepts of change management. However, it is important to note that the noble role of a leader is to initiate and ensure that change management is inculcated at all the hierarchical structures of the organization that he or she leads. To achieve this goal, understanding the perceptions of the people being led is crucial. This requirement calls for possession of emotional intelligence traits in leaders.

In this different model or style of leadership, Yammarino et al argue that there is a negative connection existing between emotional cleverness and peoples output (1993, p. 25). According to the description given in the study done by Yammarino et al, the leaders are absent when needed, avoid accepting responsibility, and fail to follow up on subordinates requests for assistance (1993, p. 29). This argument may be interpreted to mean that leaders shun from engaging in situations that hold them responsible for failures to achieve certain prescribed things. Therefore, they only want to associate with success. However, an emotionally intelligent leader would want to dig deep into the root causes of failures. Hence, he or she would assume responsibility for failures though working hard to ensure that such failures would not recur in the future. This case gives rise to the query- between transactional and transformational leadership style, which one gives rise to more effective and emotionally intelligent leaders? Lowe and Kroeck offered a suggestion to this question when they concluded in their research that transformational leadership is more effective in organizations compared to the transactional style of leadership (1996, p. 49). The relationship between these styles of leadership and emotional intelligence was studied in details especially by Ashforth and Humphrey (1995) who noted, transformational leadership appears to be dependent upon the evocation, framing, and mobilization of emotions whereas transactional leadership appears to be more dependent upon subordinates cognitions by tending to follow a rational model of motivation (p. 46). House et al (1988) later seconded the findings and proposed the model of transformational leadership as one that has a strong link with the output of people (p. 37).

Salovey and Mayer (1990, p. 10) stated that emotional intelligence regarding to the styles of leadership that involves the capacity of a leader to monitor the myriads of emotions of a person and those of other people in relation with the components of transformational leadership such as idealized behaviors. They also showed how individual differences exist in emotional intelligence by being brought about by the individuals ability to appraise the emotions of others and our own (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 10). In the effort to ensure that leaders achieve their duties, it is essential that they appreciate that their precise achievement of job requirements is dependent on their capacity to learn from their followers the things they do not know and which may influence the success of the organizations that they lead. This case can only happen if the leaders in question are able to understand peoples concerns through opening up new ideas, revelations, and insights.

George (2000) described the researches made in the demonstration of the relationships between leadership and emotional intelligence. According to her, most of studies examining this relationship have always been focused on how leaders are, what they do in their workplaces, and the decisions they make (George, 2000). George also suggested a direct correlation between competences (emotional intelligence) of project managers with their levels of attentiveness to details (2000, p. 18). Her argument was that emotional intelligence serves to enhance the problem solving ability of leaders, which in turn helps them make crucial decisions relating to organizations in which they work (George, 2000, p. 19). She further suggests that leaders who make positive decisions for the organizations they work in and or envision improvement have higher emotional intelligence compared to those that do not (George, 2000, p.23). Her work also led her to conclude that a chairperson with high levels of emotional intelligence can assess the emotions of his or her people in a bid to determine what they need to improve their performance (2000, p. 27).

In the review, another significant finding relating to leadership styles and emotional intelligence was found in Georges discussion of theoretical relationships between emotional intelligence and effective leadership (2000, p. 28). He proposed that performance in the working environment is enhanced by greater self-awareness, and the capacity to detect the feelings and attitude of other people thus making the leaders aware of any fake emotions in the people (2000, p. 32). Her argument therefore was that leaders can effectively guide and motivate their subordinates by using emotions and that effective management of emotions is crucial in the handling of ob-related stresses and other problems at the workplace (p. 38). Barling et al. (2000) and Palmer et al. (2001) present some of the most significant empirical studies conducted on the relationship of emotional intelligence and effective leadership and leadership styles. The study that is highlighted by Barling et al. (2000) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and the two leadership paradigms of transformational and transactional leadership described by Bass (1985). Their study culminated in the suggestion, emotional intelligence predisposes leaders to use transformational behaviors (Barling et al p. 34).

Palmer et al (2001) are also did studies on the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational/transactional leadership styles. In the comparison of the two styles that they did, they concluded, transformational leadership is considered to be more emotion based (involving heightened emotional levels) than transactional leadership and that there should be a stronger relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership than with transactional leadership (2001, p. 7). The distinction between leadership and management is one of the scholarly areas that have attracted an intense attention. Early researches in this area presumed that leadership was synonymous to management. However, with consideration of the roles and the scope of the two areas, it is now evident that leaders are different from managers. Managers are more interested in the mechanisms that ensure that organizations succeed in the context of anticipated future uncertainties by enhancing their profitability. One particular observation was of significance (2001, p. 5). In the correlation bit, they stated, the ability to monitor and manage emotions in oneself and others were both significantly correlated with the inspirational motivation and individualized consideration components of transformational leadership (Palmer et al., 2001, p. 3). These parameters are some of the significant researches relating leadership styles and emotional intelligence. They are inclined towards positive and negative correlation between aspects in organizational leadership.

Weiberge (2009) conducted a research aiming to compare and evaluate the level of emotional intelligence exhibited by managers and or how this level related to their performance at their workplace by testing leaders using the MSCEIT (p.747). The managers were asked to complete the MLQ5x on their perceptions of their managers leadership style and leadership effectiveness (p.747). The main aim of the research was to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership. The findings of the research indicated that the managers perceived effectiveness was not related to emotional intelligence. Bolden (2007) differs with these findings by arguing that the effectiveness of leaders is a function of some specific circumstances coupled with how leaders blend their leadership styles over time (p.3). However, he maintains that misuse or even overuse of specific leadership styles may truncate into ineffectiveness, which may offset the already established organizational climate (Bolden, 2007, p.5).

Organizational climate encompasses things such as flexibility, the sense of responsibility, clarity, commitment compliance to standards, and a sense of accuracy in performance feedbacks. Based on these elements of a good organizational atmosphere, Kellerman (2004) argues that leaders deserve to develop various leadership styles including affirmative, facilitative, visionary versus authoritative, conceive or commanding coaching, democratic, and coaching (p. 29). Each of these styles is appropriate for specific desired outcomes. For instance, according to Hogan and Hogan (2001), where high standards for performance are set in an organization, commanding or coercive leadership style is required to achieve them faster and consistently with the established standards of quality (p.43). This means that the main concern of a leader operating in such an organization would only be focused on inducing a culture of compliance. Considering the definitions of emotional intelligence offered by Palmer et al. (2001) and Smith, Profetto-McGrath, and Cummings (2009), coercive leadership is an impediment to leadership guided by the perspectives of emotional intelligence.

Based on Golemans study that confirms that emotional intelligence is an essential factor for determining the effectiveness of a leader, Barbara and Shilpa (2003) sought to study the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence. The main aim of the research was to find out any gender variations in the connection between transformational headship tactics and emotional cleverness of different leaders (Barbara & Shilpa, 2003, p.387). The researchers found out that a predicative significant relationship of p<0.05 existed between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership styles. While predicting transformational styles of leadership, the researchers did not find any significant interactions (p>0.05) between emotional intelligence and gender. However, there was a considerable variation between the two parameters for the various managers based on their gender (Barbara & Shilpa, 2003, p.387). The research also established that women and men managers had no considerable variations (p>0.05) in their transformational leadership scores. These results indicate that, while transformational leadership styles may be related to emotional intelligence, the relationship is not determined by the existing gender differences among managers.

As a leadership style, transformational leadership has received an incredible attention within the last decade. Many scholars see it as one of the most essential areas of leadership research (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000, p.16). This prominence is associated with the calls of flexible and adaptive leaders who are able to work in an effective way especially in a rapidly changing operational environment (Bass et al, 2003, p.208). The researcher argues that such kind of leadership is what constitutes transformational leadership by further asserting (Bass, 2003, p. 209). The significance of transformational leadership is also noted by Alimo-Metcalfe who retaliates, leadership has experienced a considerable reinterpretation from representing an authority relationship&to a process of influencing followers or staff by inspiring them or pulling them towards the vision of some future state (this model of leadership is referred to as transformational) (2004, p.7). Considering the importance of transformational leadership in an organization that operates in a dynamic environment, questions emerge on the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence.

Parker and Sorensen (2008) conducted a research on the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership styles using 43 leaders from various positions and knowledge (Parker & Sorensen, 2008, p.137). Data was collected through Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory coupled with Avolios Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The participants were then put into four categories following the general emotional cleverness and performance of transformational or transactional headship. Comparison of the groups was then conducted. The statistical comparison of the four groups indicated, Highly significant difference between the groups existed, and hence it was concluded that a strong relationship existed between high levels of EI and high levels of transformational or transactional leadership styles (Parker & Sorensen, 2008, p.137). This exposition implies that scores in EI may help in predicting the leadership style adopted by a manager. For high scores in transformational or transactional leadership, it means, leaders deploying this style are also likely to have high scores in EQi (Parker & Sorensen, 2008, p.137). However, the research findings are not indicative of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership styles since Parker and Sorensen (2008) found no evidence that would explain the causal direction that would help in providing an explanation whether EI may contribute to a particular type of leadership and or vice versa (p.139).

Leadership scholars contend, Transformational leadership energizes groups to persist when conditions are unpredictable, difficult, and stressful (Bass and Avolio, 2002, p.102). According these scholars, leaders play a variety of roles including serving as sources of inspirations, inducing organization changes through corporate leadership, and serving as the main sources of organizations power and visions (Bass & Avolio, 2002, p.105). Arguably, this finding suggests that leadership styles are closely linked with objectives and goal achievement. Bass et al (2003) add evidence that, in the effort to ensure that leaders achieve their duties, it is essential that they appreciate that their precise achievement of job requirements is dependent on their capacity to learn from their followers the things they do not know and which may influence the success of the organizations that they lead. The research also evidences that the passive-avoidant leadership style is negatively correlated to group satisfaction, group commitment, and group performance. Stemming from the findings of Bass et al (2003), frameworks of studying the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership styles are established. Several researchers including Leban and Zulauf (2004), Barling et al (2000), and Palmer et al (2001) identify the validity of such a research. Scholarly evidence exists showing that both transactional and transformational leadership skills and emotional intelligence are reachable and trainable. This possibility points at deducing that leadership profiles developed can be applied practically by managers.

In a more recent work by Goleman, emotional intelligence has been found as beneficial relative to ones position in the hierarchy of leadership in an organization (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005, p.43). Through the presentation of the results of two preliminary publications (IQ and Technical Skills and Emotional Intelligence), Dulewicz (2003) provides further evidence for this notion (p.204). The notion explains why many of the researches in leadership development over the last one decade have focused squarely on looking for a formula and strategies that would enable executives and managers to become aware of themselves and others. The formula requires them (executives and managers) to hike the levels of their self-management and or understand themselves or put differently to increase their emotional intelligence. In this context, emotional intelligence provides an anchorage and a substrate for the development of various leadership styles depending on the qualities and aspects of emotional intelligence that are deployed by a specific leader. Various scholars have established measurement instruments for gauging peoples emotional intelligence. Despite the fact that the measurements obtained from the emotional intelligence test instruments indicate that a connection may exist between emotional intelligence and possession of various skills and abilities that are related to excellence in leadership, they do not provide a definitive and sufficient evidence to prove that leaders who have high levels of EI are indeed influential. Being a better leader implies having the capacity to use an appropriate leadership style to suit different situations in the work environments.

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been anecdotally considered to provide organizational performance advantages in the contemporary market. However, the majority of the studies conducted on the impact of CSR have been rather focused on organizational performance, with little other mediating effects considered. Fewer studies still have been conducted regarding companies operating in morally and ethically ambiguous industries, such as gambling, alcohol, and gun manufacture, despite companies in these industries being reasonably more invested in CSR strategies. This study, therefore, seeks to investigate the impact of CSR on employee retention in Ladbrokes, a gambling company in the U.K. A literature review approach of grey literature is implemented with the data sourced from the companys website and company-issued documents exclusively. The results show that three tenets ought to be addressed for a company to foster a positive correlation between CSR strategies and employee retention. These tenets include job satisfaction, work meaningfulness, and employee engagement. From the CSR strategy implemented by Ladbrokes, the company effectively fulfills these tenets and reasonably implies that it promotes employee retention.

Introduction

The orthodox understanding of a corporations principal purpose is that of profit maximization. However, due to the advent of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), companies are obligated to abide by moral norms, despite competition, or else risk incurring heavy penalties, and disadvantage in the market. This is especially important in instances where the corporation in question deals in products that may be widely regarded as ethically dubious, socially undesirable, or overall problematic (Pratten and Walton, 2008). In such cases, there is often a greater expectation of responsible behavior from the general population and statutory bodies.

While Corporate Social Responsibility has been extensively covered in recent literature, research, and scholarly works, the focus of the review has been primarily on customer management, and compliance with overarching authorities. The social responsibilities of businesses are also quite varied, depending on the industry, and general perception as well. This study, therefore, seeks to explore the intersection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee retention. The focus of this paper is how corporate social responsibility in Ladbrokes impact upon employee retention. The result will ideally inform on CSR as an impact in organization productivity, and further create awareness of the company to the general public.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an essential component of organizational culture. CSR can be defined as an implementable business framework that introduces a self-regulating mechanism allowing the company to be socially accountable to its stakeholders, the general public, and itself (Liang and Renneboog, 2017). It comprises the process of incorporating social and environmental concerns into their operations and their interaction with shareholders. The impact of CSR on employees, who are prominent shareholders within a business entity, holds extensive research potential. This is further exacerbated by the industry within which Ladbrokes operates, which is in the ethically ambiguous activity of gambling.

Objectives of the Study

The primary objective of this research is to review the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) upon employee retention at Ladbrokes. To fulfill this overarching objective, the following specific objectives will be undertaken:

1. To discover the various research works conducted in the area of corporate social responsibility and employee retention.
2. To expound on the various factors that affect employee retention initiatives in Ladbrokes.
3. To examine the influencing factors on job satisfaction, corporate social responsibility, and employee retention in the company.

Organization of the Study

The current chapter comprises the introduction, covering a succinct overview of corporate social responsibility, and the aims and objectives of this study. The second chapter will feature the literature review, where prevalent literature on the field will be assessed and themes identified. This review will be essential to contextualize the literary gap that this study seeks to feel. The third chapter will comprise the methodology implemented in the data collection and analysis while the fourth chapter will comprise the actual data analysis and interpretation of results. Finally, the fifth and final chapter will include the conclusions derived from the data analysis, as well as the recommendations made, and the implications of the overall study.

Literature Review

Much scholarly attention has been afforded to the concepts of corporate social performance and social responsibility over the decades. Furthermore, academicians and business managers have witnessed the evolution of how corporate social responsibility morphed from an irrelevant and mundane idea to becoming a crucial underpinning of research agendas (Moura-Leite and Padgett, 2011). Business entities have been forced to come to terms with the fact that adopting a socially responsible outlook is essential for busines growth. This is due to the fact that the contemporary market is rife with ethical, legal, and environmental challenges that significantly influence the organizational behavior; and solely focusing on economic management may no longer be feasible. This literature review section will comprise a thorough, yet succinct overview of prevalent literature regarding CSR, employee management, employee retention, and organizational management and performance.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be addressed in a continuum. On one end the continuum, are philanthropic endeavors that directly contribute to the environmental and social issues identified or received by the company. These issues may also include gaps that have been identified by the higher-tier management as well. These particular activities have little to no impact on the corporations core activities, its business model, or the technologies implemented. On the other extreme of the continuum are the set of practices that are adopted in direct response to the demands placed on the corporation by society, and the activities influencing the organization from various dynamic forces (DAmato and Roome, 2009). The representation of CSR on this continuum leads to a rather popular definition of the practice as the set of practices, policies, and programs that are implemented within a business and its operations, as well as the decision-making process to ensure that the corporation can maximize the positive impacts of its operation within a community (DAmato and Roome, 2009). This, however, requires the fulfilment of certain conditions including the ethical undertaking of business activities, and the provision of quality commodities.

Turcsanyi and Sisaye (2013) further reiterate the definition of CSR, and expound it further. Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as the sustained commitment made by a business entity; whose primary business focus is profit maximization, to act ethically and enhance financial development while guaranteeing the quality of life of its employees, their families, the immediate community, and the society as a whole. The ideology behind CSR is that corporations should strive to achieve a sustainable balance between profit maximization, and the expenses made by promoting the positive influence and minimizing negative influence of its operations in society. Therefore, firms concerned with CSR are economically competitive, while fulfilling the required tasks necessary for their continued existence and survival. These tasks may include responding to their users needs, delivering above the minimum requirements, general observation of ethicality, providing conducive working conditions, environmental considerations and community integration.

A socially responsible business entity can also compete favorably for stakeholder goodwill, and effectively differentiate itself from its economic competitors by integrating social welfare into their business opportunities. However, corporations would not be incentivized to act socially responsible if these corporate responsibility parameters are not integrated into their decision-making and governance structures (Misani, 2010; Lenssen et al., 2009). The significance of this integration is underlined by the fact that over 80 percent of the global 250 firms currently release their CSR information, and a further 75 percent have a formal corporate CSR strategy implemented (Blasco and King, 2017). The implementation of a viable CSR strategy is, therefore, paramount to an institutions organizational success.

An organization can be socially responsible through being mindful of ethical operating procedures, being environmentally friendly, investor friendly, employee friendly, or a patron of the arts, learning institutions, community outreach programs or other avenues. In fact, Bu
iknien and Kazlauskait (2012) posit that a business entity can implement CSR by being mindful of the environment, and the employees, as well as supporting community projects such as schools, medical provision, and cultural programs. This proactive implementation of CSR can significantly minimize stakeholder conflicts, and maximize loyalty across the organization.

Internal Corporate Social Responsibility

Internal CSR is primarily aimed at the internal core operations of a corporation. Cavazotte and Chang (2016) assert that internal CSR is concerned with the actions that can be taken within the organization to enhance the welfare of the employees, their productivity, and lives; consequently, influencing the corporations productivity and profitability. Thus, Internal CSR is defined by Low (2016) as CSR practices that are primarily related with improving the physical and psychological welfare and working conditions of employees. The sole focus with employees is owing to the fact that they are considered a very important stakeholder group within any organization (Thang and Fassin, 2017). Further, according to Mory, Wirtz and Göttel (2016), there exists four groups or value classes of Internal CSR practices, which relate to the development of an employees quality of work, the welfare and satisfaction of the employee, development of skills and social equity, and finally the workers health and safety at work.

Employee Engagement

The contemporary marketplace has proven to business managers that having a high-performing employee workforce is imperative for the survival and continued growth of a company. Resultantly, employee engagement has steadily become a rising concern and priority in many organizations as a highly engaged workforce can increase productivity, profitability, and innovation, while reducing acquisition costs, and maintaining top-tier talent (Harvard Business Review, 2013). It is, therefore, essential that every company adequately engage their employees to maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Employee engagement does not have a particular cohesive, and universally accepted, definition provided in scholarly literature. However, several definitions that are similar to an extent have been provided regarding the concept of employee engagement. Gupta and Sharma (2016) defined employee engagement as the positive outlook elicited in employees towards an organization, its culture, and held values. Engaged employees, from this definition, are intimately familiar with the overall business context, and dedicated to working with colleagues to benefit the corporation. Ariani (2013), on the other hand, defines employee engagement as the workplace approach that is designed to guarantee that employees are wholly committed to the overarching organizational values and goals, contribute to organizational success, while simultaneously enhancing their own sense of welfare. Therefore, employee engagement is the intelligent and emotional commitment of an employee, or a group of employees to a particular organization that ultimately influences organizational performance. Shuck and Wollard (2010) expound on this definition by asserting that employee engagement is the individual employees cognitive and behavioral state, as directed towards a desired organizational outcome. Therefore, employee engagement can be viewed as a construct that outlines the differences between employees, and the conscious dedication and effort they invest towards their jobs.

Developing Employee Engagement

It is imperative for organizations to strive towards an engaged workforce. This is because employers ideally want employees who would do their utmost best to help the company meet its organizational goals, and employees want a fulfilling job that is both challenging yet meaningful (Markos and Sridevi, 2010). Therefore, in order to foster and nurture employee engagement, a two-way relationship between the employer and employee is required. A good relationship can be developed with the employees through adoption of good management philosophies, providing an enriching professional atmosphere, and recognizing employee potentials and talents. Adequately engaged employees will have many positive attributes, including being self-motivated, passionate, high energy levels, and deeply connected with their tasks. Due to these qualities, and overall contentment, engaged employees tend to hold their jobs longer, while working better and smarter, and consequently, leading to improved performance on an individual and organizational level.

Many factors have been accredited to either facilitating or impeding employee engagement. For instance, Ariani (2013) posits that a clear understanding of how all jobs contribute to the overall performance strategy, as well as recognition for high performers and a company-wide communication of performance goals were important drivers of employee engagement. These drivers help create an implementable road map towards organizational excellence. Other prevalent drivers according to Kim, Kolb and Kim (2012) include career growth opportunities, a clear correlation between employee input and organizational performance, nature of the work, pride regarding the corporation, employee development, managerial relationships, and co-workers. Corporations should, therefore, understand and exploit various antecedents to effectively facilitate employee engagement, and sustain this engagement.

According to Ferreira and De Oliveira (2014), there are three widely used facets to determine whether employees of a specific organization are adequately engaged or not. The three facets taken into consideration include dedication, vigor, and absorption. Dedication comprises having a sense of pride towards the work allocated, and being strongly involved in the tasks assigned, while absorption refers to the pleasant immersion of an individual in their allocated duties. Finally, vigor refers to the conscious willingness to exert oneself into the job given, and the ability to not be easily fatigued, and persevere in the face of challenges.

The Gambling Industry in the U.K.

Many human activities are harmful if done in excess. Therefore, society often expects that an adult individual can implement self-restraint to prevent damage to the self. However, some products may be addictive, and ideally, some vulnerable subsets of the population may require further intervention and protection. Gambling is a prevalent example of these products. While for many people, it constitutes a simple hobby that combines the element of risk with the allure of financial reward. For a few people, however, gambling may lead to debilitating problems that may visit harm upon those people who are closest to them and the community at large.

Further, the Church of England Ethical Advisory Group cautions that gambling contributes to social ills that culminate in severe addiction to the activity, and should be reasonably avoided (Young, 2006). The social ills referred to may include financial debt, economic difficulty, family issues, and in more extreme situations, theft, depression and suicide. The British Gambling Preference Survey (2007) further provides that the number of people who are problematic betting may approximately be between 236,500 to 284,000 individuals. The focus of this study, however, is not to argue the morality of gambling, but to investigate the level of socially responsible control that is exerted in the industry, specifically by Landbrokes.

Contextually, the Gambling sector in the U.K. is under consistent scrutiny. Therefore, if it were to not behave responsibly, especially in the matter of problem gambling, there may be more stringent legislative controls implemented. However, the impact of the existing social responsibility measures taken by gambling firms operating within the U.K. is rather ambiguous. This is underlined by Pratten and Walton (2008), who state that the gambling industrys CSR strategies implemented in the U.K. market are more of a public relations smoke show, and their efficacy is doubtful. Furthermore, Leung and Gray (2016) provide that there is remarkably little disclosure done by gambling firms regarding responsible gambling, which is the primary social responsibility of these firms. This study will, therefore, seek to investigate the CSR strategy and reporting of Ladbrokes, and how this influences employee engagement, and ultimately retention.

Methodology

This study will seek to investigate the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on employee retention. The particular review will be done within a morally ambiguous industry, with specific focus on Ladbrokes in the U.K. To fulfill this overarching objective, the following specific objectives will be executed:

1. To discover the various research works conducted in the area of corporate social responsibility and employee retention.
2. To expound on the various factors that affect employee retention initiatives in Ladbrokes.
3. To examine the influencing factors on job satisfaction, corporate social responsibility, and employee retention in the company

Research Method and Design

This study employs a qualitative research method. This approach is primarily used to address contextual problems involving perspective, experience, or the opinions of the study population, or individuals with intimate knowledge of the research problem (Hammarberg, Kirkman and De Lacey, 2016) Furthermore, the data from this approach does not require implemented measuring metrics, and counting. Instead, the researcher can focus on the exploration of contextual attitudes and concepts from the literature reviewed.

The qualitative approach was deemed appropriate for this study, as understanding the impact of corporate social responsibility on employee retention was the critical concern. This research problem is heavily qualitative, and the parameters used for the analysis would be better reviewed from a qualitative philosophy. Ultimately, this approach also allowed the more extensive review of the interrelationships between corporate social responsibility and employee engagement within the research site, which do not take any numeric forms. The qualitative approach was more preferred over the alternative quantitative method due to its flexibility in capturing perceptions and opinions, which also allowed the easier triangulation of any preliminary findings with more data.

A quantitative approach was excluded from this particular study due to its primary aim of confirming hypotheses using numerical data, or measuring inter-variable relationships as provided by Creswell and Creswell (2017). This approach would have only been appropriate if statistical instruments are implemented to measure data and address the studys research questions. The requirement of numerical data, therefore, renders the quantitative and mixed-methods approaches null for this study.

Owing to the overarching research approach being qualitative, this study will also implement a literature review research design. However, to improve the reliability and validity of the study, the inclusion criterion of the materials used will be limited to grey literature. Grey literature refers to manifold documents that are often procedurally produced on all levels of academia, business, government and industry in many print and electronic formats. This literature is often protected by intellectual property rights, and are of sufficient quality to be curated and preserved by institutional repositories and public libraries, but are not published commercially. Ultimately, the production of grey literature is not done with the primary purpose of publishing with commercial bodies. The examples of grey literature that is implementable in this study includes dissertations and theses, patent information and filings, procedures and policies, conference abstracts, regulatory information, unpublished trial data, reports, and government and statutory publications.

The inclusion of grey literature in this literature review will be essential in minimizing publication bias. This type of bias is exhibited in published scholarly research. It often occurs when the outcome of the research or experimental study directly influences the decision to otherwise publish and distribute it. This can, in the long-run lead to the formulation and testing of hypotheses in future based on inaccurate impressions gleaned from the existing scientific literature. This results in extensive wastage in research opportunities and resources.

Data Collection Methods and Procedures

The data collection criterion for this research will comprise secondary data sourced from online sources wholly. Secondary data is widely defined as any form of data that was already collected through primary sources and availed for other researchers to implement within their own studies and derive their own results (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). Limiting the data collection to solely online sources will significantly reduce the complexity of material acquisition and review, and reduce redundancies in the data, while maintaining the overall quality of the analysis and interpretation of the results.

Furthermore, this research study has been conducted during a rather unique yet trying period with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As a result, primary data collection has been significantly compromised, as interpersonal contact has been severely limited to curb the spread of COVID-19, which is highly infectious. The initial data collection for this research study had been qualitative interviews, but due to the pandemic, was revised to literature review of grey literature, primarily obtained from the Ladbrokes website and company-issued publications. However, the overall quality of the data analysis and interpretation of results will not be reasonably compromised from the change in overall data collection approach.

Study Limitations and De-limitations

The study does have some inherent limitations stemming from its design. The data source will be primarily the companys website and company-issued publications, which may reduce the generalizability of the study results to other stakeholders, and firms. Furthermore, this issue is exacerbated by the fact that Ladbrokes operates within a unique market, both literally and morally, and therefore the strategies employed may not be generalizable to a large variety of firms and other stakeholders. Finally, the company may provide biased information, in a bid to surpass scrutiny and moral obligations, and gain public favor due to the nature of its business. However, this issue will be addressed by triangulating any collected data with available contextual data from news sources and online journals.

A significant delimitation of the study involves using online sources of grey literature, which significantly reduces the complexity of data collection, and places the researcher in lesser harm in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The utilization of the companys own website and publication data is also a delimitation of the study aimed towards reducing the overall complexity as well. However, despite the delimitations employed, the quality of the data collection and analysis will not be reasonably compromised.

Ethical Considerations

This research study will exclusively use secondary data, comprising grey literature sourced from Ladbrokes website and company publications. Consequently, this study will forego ethical considerations regarding protection of human participants, as no respondents will be involved. However, terms of fair use of intellectual property materials will be followed, and any findings that are not the researchers own will be appropriately cited and referenced according to the Harvard referencing style.

Summary and Transition

This study implements a qualitative approach to the research, characterized by a literature review research design using grey literature. Grey literature refers to documents that were produced by institutions, scholars, or the government, but not for the primary purpose of publication. In this case, the Ladbrokes website will be used, along with any company-issued publications, such as its annual CSR report. The appropriate findings will be outlined and discussed in the next section, which is Chapter 4, along with the interpretation of the data to address the research questions of this study.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

This section will comprise a brief company overview of Ladbrokes to contextualize its prevalent information and ground the research. Furthermore, a literature review of the interrelationships between corporate social responsibility and employee retention will be conducted, with a funnel approach ultimately addressing the gambling industry, and ideally comparable firms, in stature and markets, as Ladbrokes. Finally, the company website, and other company-issued literature will be reviewed to identify its CSR implementation strategy, and correlate these findings contextually with its employee engagement.

Contextual Overview: Ladbrokes

Ladbrokes is currently a constituent brand of GVC Holdings, a British sports betting and gambling company following an acquisition of the company in 2018. In 2016, however, Ladbrokes had merged with Gala Coral to create the resulting company, Ladbrokes Coral, which was the largest high street bookmaker in the U.K. before being acquired by online magnate GVC Holdings (BBC, 2017; GVC Holdings, 2019). GVC holdings now holds 53.5 percent of the combined group, with the constituent brands outlined in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Overview and Sub-brands of GVC Holdings. Source BBC.com

The final worth of the acquisition is, however, subject to statutory review of gaming machines termed the Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). This underlines the existing scrutiny of gambling as a morally dubious venture, and the need for corporate social responsibility geared to addressing problematic gambling. In the U.K., the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCM) indicated that it would cap the size of gambling stakes that gamblers can reasonably place on FOBTs amid concerns of problematic gambling harming susceptible people.

Ultimately, GVC Holdings, and in extension, Ladbrokes, is a profit maximizing company. Therefore, the FOBTs restrictions, which are proposed to cap the maximum amount per spin from £100 to between £2 and £50, would impact overall profitability (BBC, 2017). This statutory scrutiny also affects stakeholder relations. Under the terms of the acquisition deal, each shareholders of the Ladbrokes Coral group would get 32.7p cash and 0.141 ordinary GVC Holdings shares in addition to a contingent value worth to a maximum of 42.8p. This contingent value would be decided upon the outcome of the DCM review (BBC, 2017).

Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Retention

There is an overwhelming focus in prevalent literature on CSR at the organizational level, but to impact on external stakeholders such as organizational reputation and branding. However, little recent research looks into the effects of CSR in employee retention, and more so within a morally ambiguous industry such as alcohol production, gambling, and guns and weapons manufacture. In broader literature, CSR has been identified to have an overall positive effect on employee retention (Wong and Leow, 2016; Paruzel, Everding and Maier, 2017; G.W Paulsen, Perera and Kadoura, 2020; Carnahan, Kryscynski and Olson, 2017; Brammer, Millington and Rayton, 2007). It is, therefore, imperative that organizations implement corporate social responsibility strategies in the human resource management as well.

Being a good corporate citizen is an important aspect of overall corporate branding (Waldman, Siegel and Javidan, 2006; Zedeck, 2011). Further empirical evidence provides that CSR has the capacity to create overall positive organizational identification, and improve the welfare of employees, with changes in the relational work dimensions positively altering work meaningfulness and organizational performance. The three tenets outlined in Table 2 below comprise the primary antecedents to employee retention as provided in prevalent literature, and supported by the job characteristics model from Hackman and Oldham (1976).

Table 2: The CSR tenets to Employee Retention

From the prevalent literature reviewed, it would reasonably follow that a firm that effectively integrates its internal corporate social responsi

Abstract

Banks and other financial institutions forming part of the financial system contribute greatly to the development of any economy. Business and industrial enterprises look for increased financial support from these institutions, since they can develop and introduce innovative financial products and services. Because of the nature of products and services handled by the financial institutions, they are exposed to different types of financial risks. There has been increased exposure of financial institutions to various risks before and during the recent financial crisis.

In this context, this research extends to the examination of risk management under conditions of the financial crisis. The study covers the classification of risks and the salient aspects of risk management. Different risk assessment models and their deficiencies are also focused. The research engages qualitative case studies of the risk management failures in Lehman Brothers and 2007/2008 subprime financing to report on the implications of risk management on the financial institutions. Suggestions on concrete measures for improving risk management in financial institutions are not included in the scope of this study.

Introduction

The word risk originates from the Italian word risicare meaning to dare. Websters Dictionary (1989) defines the word risk to mean

• expose to the chance of injury or loss
• a hazard or dangerous chance
• the hazard or chance of loss
• the degree of probability of such loss

The understanding of risk, measuring it and analyzing its consequences has made risk-taking as one of the drivers of the modern Western industrial development. Economic growth, improved quality of life and technological advancements  all have been the positive outcomes of risk-taking. In the traditional setting, codes, predetermined standards, and fixed hardware requirements guided the carrying out of hazardous activities. In the modern world, there is a complete change in the focus were with the functional orientation what is interesting is the result to achieve, rather than the solutions or guidelines to achieve the desired end. In such a functional system, the ability to address risk becomes the key element. Therefore identifying and categorizing risks is of critical importance for providing decision support for making suitable choices of arrangements and measures to achieve what is planned.

Risk Management  An Overview

While risk is the potential loss that occurs because of natural or human activities, the potential losses are the adverse consequences of such activities in the form of loss of human life, adverse health effects, loss of property, and damage to the natural environment (Modarres, 2006). Risk analysis, therefore, is a process, which characterizes, manages and informs others about the existence, nature, magnitude, and prevalence of potential losses in any situation. The process also describes and cautions on the contributing factors and uncertainties connected with such potential losses.

In engineering systems comprising of hardware, software, and human organizations potential losses due to the associated risks may arise externally to the system or losses caused by the system to the humans, organization, assets and/or environment. The loss may also occur internally resulting in damages to the system only. From an engineering perspective, the risk or potential loss results in exposure of recipients to hazards and such hazards normally extend to injury or loss of life, reconstruction cost, loss of economic activity and environmental losses. In engineering systems, risk analysis is undertaken to measure the extent of the potential loss as well as to identify the elements of the system, which are most responsible for causing such losses.

The risk management system thus signifies the ability to define the probable future course of events, making closer to a realistic assessment of the associated risks and uncertainties and to enable decision-making among the available alternatives. Risk management extends the decision-making ability to several varied social, economic, business and political issues. Based on an evaluation of several quantitative and qualitative factors interconnected with the issues under consideration, the best alternative giving the highest probability needs to be selected in any decision-making process. In business situations, choosing a specific alternative depends on the consideration of associated costs and other key performance measures as well as a careful assessment of risk and uncertainties to ensure positive outcomes. However, it cannot be ruled out that there might also result in some negative outcomes; but positive outcomes should be visualized as the overall outcomes. This is the essence of risk assessment and the process of risk management.

Risk analysis has its intellectual roots traced back to a hundred years, yet this discipline is developed into an organized body of knowledge only within the past two decades. Risk analysis is undertaken to serve several purposes such as determination of environmental and health hazards associated with several activities or substances or for comparing new and existing technologies or for determining the effectiveness of different control and mitigation techniques designed to reduce risks (Cohrssen & Covello, 1999). Risk analysis is also undertaken to set the priorities of the management in choosing one among several activities for regulatory or corrective action.

Risk assessment, on the other hand, is the technical assessment of the nature and magnitude of risk. Both the terms risk analysis and risk assessment are mostly used synonymously. Risk management uses information and data gathered from risk assessment and analysis and assimilate such information with information on technical resources, social, economic and political values for choosing the control or response options. Risk management is resorted to determine means of reducing the risk or getting rid of the risk. The difference between risk management and risk assessment is subject to wider debates and is not within the purview of this report. However, risk perceptions have a large influence on both risk management and risk assessment.

People have different perceptions about risks and such perceptions are affected by different elements such as the persons or things likely to be affected, nature, familiarity and magnitude of perceived effects. The perceptions often also based on the likely benefits to accrue from acceptance of the risks. Because risk is ubiquitous, risk analysis techniques are used to analyze several phenomena having different magnitudes. Risk analysis makes use of a wide variety of techniques, which are used in situations where the solutions are not explicitly available and where the information on the potential losses is ambiguous and uncertain. Risk analysis uses various disciplines like science, engineering, and statistics for analyzing the risk-related information and for making estimation and evaluation of the probability and magnitude of the associated risks.

Problem Definition

In any economy, business houses and industrial enterprises depend on the financial institutions for their financial support, as these institutions develop and provide innovative financial products and services. Given the nature of products being dealt with by the banks and financial institutions as also the nature of transactions the institutions are exposed to different kinds of risks. Some activities carry risks of complex nature like the case of illiquid and proprietary assets being held by the banks (Santomero & Trester, 1997).

Financial institutions need to adopt systems for identification; assessment and management of risks to their operations and these risks may arise because of the influence of external and internal factors. These risk mitigation initiatives are considered important to enhance the ability of the financial institutions to respond to movements in the financial markets, which are quick and unexpected. The efficiency of risk management of a financial institution depends partly on the effectiveness of corporate governance practices of the institution, which focus on risk mitigation across the institution. There are different types of risks faced by financial institutions, which influence their risk management practices.

The risk management in the financial institutions centers around two basic issues as to the impact of risk on the functioning of the financial institutions and how the institutions can work to mitigate the potential risks involved which form an integral part of the products of the financial institutions (Stulz, 1984). The available literature points out four distinct reasons for practicing risk management in any financial institution. They are (a) self-interest of the managerial people involved in the business processes of the financial institutions, (b) impact of taxation, (c) the cost of financial distress and the resultant economic losses and (d) capital market imperfections (Santomero, 1995). In each of the above instances, the profits are volatile, which may result in a reduction of the firms value to some of the stakeholders. Anyone of the above reasons would have the effect of motivating the management to make a careful assessment of the risks associated with the different products and techniques for risk mitigation.

Risk management in the financial service industry has assumed greater importance in the wake of a balanced economic development of the nation. An intrusive risk management system is considered very much essential given the concern about the safety and soundness of the financial service industry. However, the advancement in the information and communication technology, the enlargement in the financial services industry, the ambiguity in the distinction of banking and non-banking financial institutions and the creation and offering of numerous financial service products have put the banking system in a state of perpetual change and instability. Thus, the transformation of the industry into a highly competitive and dynamic environment has made the system incompatible with traditional risk management systems. The key question remains that whether at all it is possible to adopt appropriate risk management systems meeting the needs of the increasingly competitive environment of the banking systems.

In the years leading up to the recent financial crisis, some of the authorities have recognized that and intimated several investment banks, that they have not implemented efficient risk mitigation initiatives. Despite the advice from the regulators, these institutions have not taken any steps to remove these weaknesses in their risk management systems such as making changes in the system of risk assessments, until the crisis occurred. This is because these institutions reported a strong financial position. Based on such reporting, the senior management had presented the plans for change in their risk management plans. In some instances, the authorities themselves were not convinced about the existence of deficiencies in the risk management until such time the institutions were affected financially by a lack of proper risk mitigating plans because of the recent financial crisis. Authorities have accepted their heavy reliance on the risk reports of the top management of investment banks. This makes the necessity of the senior management of the financial institutions especially the commercial banks understanding the risk assessment and management under the financial crisis an important and significant task. This thesis studies the issue of risk management under conditions of financial crisis and challenges faced by the financial institutions to mitigate risks, which will add to the existing knowledge on risk management of financial institutions.

Research Objective

Examining risk management under conditions of the financial crisis and the challenges faced by financial institutions is the central aim of this study. In achieving this central aim, the stud attempts to achieve the following other objectives.

• To study and make an in-depth report on the concept of risk, the rationale for risk management risks faced by the financial institutions and methods of measuring risk
• To make an in-depth study of the deficiencies in risk management by financial institutions during the recent financial crisis
• To report on the effects of the deficiencies in managing risk effectively

The study will achieve other objectives incidental to the above objectives.

Research Questions

Based on the theoretical observations from case studies, the research will find answers to the following research questions.

1. What are the salient aspects of risk management by financial institutions under conditions of the financial crisis?
2. What are the deficiencies in the risk assessment and risk management techniques followed by the financial institutions during the recent financial crisis?
3. What are the effects of the deficiencies in managing risks effectively by the financial institutions?

Research Methodology

This research has been undertaken to examine the salient aspects of risk management under conditions of the financial crisis and the challenge of financial institutions functioning in the United States in this respect.

Denzin and Lincoln (1998) state the researcher is independent to engage any research approach, so long as the method engaged enables him to complete the research and achieve its objectives. To achieve its objectives, this research proposes to use the deductive or qualitative approach. The qualitative research method is also referred to as naturalistic research (Bogdan and Biklen (1982); Lincoln and Guba (1985); Patton (1990); Eisner (1991). According to Marshall and Rossman (1995), qualitative research is based on the collection of data from different sources and the data already collected forms the basis for reporting the findings of the study and making recommendations. Yin (1984) identified different sources like archival records, direct observations, interviews, and observation of the participants, for data collection to conduct qualitative research.

The research design of the case study was adopted for the study. Case study design can be considered as the appropriate one, as this method allows an examination in depth (Burns, 2000 p. 461). According to Burns (2000), using a case study method, the researcher will be able to undertake an intensive analysis of the research topic to get deep insights on the subject studied (p. 461). Punch (1998) observes that the case study allows for a variety of research questions and purposes, which enables the researcher to gather a full understanding of the case to the extent possible, (p.150). However, the case study may be considered as more subjective. Burns (2000) points out that the case study may turn the researcher to be selective in interpreting the results. This makes the observations and interpretations devoid of easy checking or verification. The case study allows an opportunity for the researcher to advance personal causes (Burns, 2000, p 474). The research will use secondary data for researching literature review and case studies.

Collection of Secondary Data

According to Al-Mashari, Zahir & Zairi (2001), because of a lack of methodological research constructs it becomes important that an in-depth review of the relevant literature is undertaken. Therefore, an extensive literature review will be attempted using professional journals and other research publications containing articles on risk management by financial institutions and factors affecting risk mitigation. The research will review the theoretical contributions of several research scholars and practitioners to form the theoretical base for the research.

Data Analysis Method

Since the information gathered is qualitative, there will be no statistical methods used to analyze the data collected. An in-depth analysis of the factors and their comparison with the oretical findings will be undertaken to achieve the research objectives.

One of the serious limitations of this research is the smaller number of samples that will be selected for the case study. Generalization of the deficiencies in managing risk effectively during the financial crisis, based on the findings of this research, using the case study of Lehman Brothers and 2007/2008 subprime mortgage, may not be possible and to this extent, this study suffers a serious limitation. Another limitation of the study was the availability of an abundance of literature on the topic of risk management by financial institutions. Considerable time has to be spent on reviewing the available literature and extracting the relevant ideas for inclusion in the thesis. This has impeded the progress of the research to some extent.

The case study will cover the failure of effective risk management in Lehman Brothers and 2007/2008 subprime mortgage, to assess and report on risk management during times of financial crisis. Secondary research was used to collect information on risk management under the circumstances of the financial crisis. The scope of the current research is limited to assess the deficiencies in risk management by financial institutions in the context of the United States and has not been extended to suggesting ways of improving risk management by financial institutions during the financial crisis.

Thesis Structure

To make a comprehensive presentation, this thesis is structured to have five chapters. This Chapter, while presenting a background of the research issue, also laid the objectives of the study as well as the research method, aims, and structure of the thesis. Chapter Two presents a review of the recent literature on risk management to add to the existing knowledge on the effect of deficiencies of managing risk effectively by the financial institutions during the financial crisis. Chapter Three provides a brief description of the research method followed for the research. Chapter Four contains case studies on risk management practices of Lehman Brothers and 2007/2008 Subprime mortgage and a discussion on the findings of the case studies. Chapter Five is the concluding chapter, which contains a summary of the most important findings of the research and answers to the research questions. This chapter also contains a few recommendations for further research in the field.

Literature Review

The objective of this chapter is to present an analytical discussion of the relevant prior research work in the area of risk management by financial institutions to add to the current knowledge on the research topic. The added knowledge will enable an in-depth understanding of the implications of the findings of the current research.

Financial Service Industry

Risk management in the financial service industry has assumed greater importance in the wake of a balanced economic development of the nation. Efficient risk management is considered very much essential because of the concern about the safety and soundness of the financial service industry. However, the advancement in the information and communication technology, the enlargement in the financial services industry, the ambiguity in the distinction of banking and non-banking financial institutions and the creation and offering of numerous financial service products have put the financial system in a state of perpetual change and instability.

Thus, the transformation of the industry into a highly competitive and dynamic environment has made the system incompatible with the traditional risk management models and their application to the industry. The key question remains that whether at all it is possible to adopt a risk management model mitigating all types of risks associated with the operations of financial institutions in the increasingly competitive environment of the financial system. This review examines different aspects of risks faced by banking and other financial institutions.

In the present day business environment to enhance the competitive strength, the firms constantly look for information and knowledge relating to the shift in the market conditions and also enabled services for putting forth the financial and other transactions. In this sphere, the services by the financial services organizations are extremely important and necessary for the business houses to accomplish their financial objectives. However, the products and services being dealt with by the financial service organizations are so vulnerable that these firms are exposed to different kinds of risks while operating in the market. Hence, the firms in the financial services industry attach more importance to risk management in their organizations. Risk management in the financial services organizations is necessitated due to various reasons.

The most important reason is the potential economic losses to which the firms will be exposed in case they had to meet with some unforeseen risk and it may erode the entire capital of the firm. There are other reasons for undertaking risk management in these firms like the tax implications of the transactions, movement in the capital and stock markets and the persistent fear of the people managing the financial services businesses that their decisions may be proved wrong by the course of business events. In any risk, being faced by the financial service firm there is the potential danger of the firm losing profits, which in turn would result in the decline of the firm value for some of the stakeholders. Similarly, all or any of these reasons for managing the risk may force the management of the firm to make an assessment of the risks involved and take necessary corrective or preventive action to protect the firm against the risks identified. In this article, the different kinds of risks to which the financial institutions are exposed and how the firms can protect them against these risks are discussed.

Methods to Protect Against Risks

The financial institutions adopt several ways of protecting them against the risks associated with their businesses. In general, the organizations can find out the best business practices in the industry concerning risk management and adopt them in their organizations. Alternatively, the organizations can find convenient ways of transferring the risks to other players in the market or the organizations can employ specialized risk management programs at their organizational level to protect them against any financial loss resulting from the risks.

The best practices in the industry are the normally adopted risk management procedure by most of the organizations in which the organizations take actions like underwriting and reinsurance of risk so that the risks will be spread among the operators which have the effect of reducing the risks of apparent risks associated with the business. Also, the financial institutions may undertake hedging of their balance sheet items to protect any possible financial risks due to change in interest rates or exchange rates if the assets and liabilities are held in foreign companies. The basic objective behind these measures can be seen from the fact that the organizations do not want to carry the risks, which are part of the businesses undertaken by them and to maintain the level of total risks under controllable levels.

There are systemic risks that can be eliminated by a proper assessment of the risks and taking risk protection programs to safeguard the financial interests of the organizations. Similarly, in the case of risks that the organizations may face due to the frauds committed by the staff and employees, losses arising out of oversights and mistakes of the employees due to limited control by senior-level management  known as operational risks  the organizations can find suitable ways to minimize these risks. In any case, it must be noted that the organizations would suffer from possible erosion of profits due to excessive protective measures being taken by them to control the risks. However, it may be possible for the organizations to make a cost justification for the extended risk management measures and communicate them to the stakeholders to make them agree for the reduced earnings.

A significant part of the risks of the financial institutions is getting transferred to other willing counterparts by a method called Risk transfer where the assets created by the financial institutions are transferred to other business counterparts on a fair market value mutually agreed by both the parties.

Such transfers are commonly accepted by the organizations if they find that keeping the assets may not bring any additional financial advantage to them rather than increasing the associated risks. There are specialized markets and players to deal with such claims issued or other financial assets created by the organizations. Individuals and organizations acquire such kind of assets as a part of diversification programs of their portfolios.

Yet another bundle of risks connected with the business of the financial institutions, which have the characteristic feature of being inherently associated with the transactions and which need constant monitoring and control by the institutions. There is no other alternative available to the organizations to shirk away from the responsibility for these risks except to take and provide for the losses arising out of these risks. However, the organizations can employ aggressive techniques of risk management, which may entail additional resources for engaging such risk management techniques. These risks in a way are out of the ordinary and carry certain special features, which make them distinct requiring special attention from the organizations to control the damage on their account.

• As found in the case of some defined pension and other retirement benefits schemes, there are some equity claims in respect of which the financial institutions are accountable for a fiduciary liability where it is not possible to trade in or hedge against the specific claims even if the investors would like to do so. In these cases, the organization should take adequate precautions and protective measures to minimize their risk exposure on these accounts.
• The other areas where such kinds of risks operate are the illiquid and proprietary assets being owned by financial institutions like banks. Such risks are very complex demanding aggressive risk management techniques to be employed by the organizations.
• There are transactions where there are elements of moral hazard forcing the financial institutions to undertake strong measures of risk management to protect the interests of the stakeholders. The application of such risk management techniques forms part of the operating procedures of the organizations and all the risk management programs are considered an integral part of the business of the financial institutions.

What Are Financial Services?

The basic functions of banks, stockbrokers, insurance companies and other financial service providers comprise of services relating to:

• Collecting the savings of the people to provide them compensation in the form of interest for foregoing the current utility of those savings and
• Providing fiancé to those people, firms and even governments who have the intention of investing the finance so provided which will enable them to pay back the institutions the financing and other service charges in the future.

Another service provided by the financial institutions is the use of money or other financial instruments to realize the payments due on purchases of goods and services on behalf of the customers. To perform this function efficiently the banks and the financial institutions have developed instruments like checks, wire transfers, credit and debit cards including smart cards and a host of other instruments which are known as the payment mechanism of the economy.

Yet another addition to the financial services includes the provision of guidance to the potential savers on how effectively use their savings to reap a good return on their investment which service is recognized as asset management and treasury management. (The Environment)

The financial services have taken the provision of a fifth service, which is the risk management to both the investors and savers. Risk management in its traditional form covered only the insurance of buildings, workers lives, and property. However, the present-day concept of insurance has extended its horizon to cover a wide range of activities including financial derivatives to manage price, interest rate, exchange rate, and even credit risks apart from covering the property, accidents, and self. Thus, financial services encompass the following mechanisms:

1. Mechanisms or instruments that enable the potential savers to park their savings safely and profitably
2. Mechanisms which provide the needy investors or borrowers the required funds to fund their projects
3. Mechanisms that govern the payments on behalf of the customers and
4. Provision of advice to the savers as to the manner of dealing with their financial needs, as well as managing the assets of the investors and savers and
5. Mechanisms to protect and manage the life, property, and finances of the constituents

The Environment

The US financial system consists of an array of financial institutions that provide any of the abovementioned financial services. Despite being the most developed and extensive in the world, financial service institutions face several risks in providing the above services. This review will cover risk management from the perspective of financial institutions providing all the above services and products.

Concept of Risk

This section elaborates on the concept of risk as it is applied in the context of financial institutions. The word concept is considered appropriate because the risk is not a directly observable and objective phenomenon of the natural world. The greatest challenge of risk management is that risk is to be construed by the people directly affected by the phenomenon.

Although the studies relating to risk are, varied and wide still there has not been evolved a comprehensive definition that covers all the aspects of risk. Quite often risk is perceived as incidents or happenings which have unwanted or unfavorable consequences. But such a definition results in accepting misleading concepts of risk being viewed as having negative and positive consequences alike and secondly risk not only covers single events but also relates itself to the future project directions. There are chances that the project conditions may change in a favorable or unfavorable direction. The point here is that it is difficult to predict the course of the future project direction at the beginning of the project life cycle. Moreover, there are plenty of chances that the prevailing conditions change during the period at which the project progresses. The risk here is that the conditions are diverse and might be potentially severe far more than the estimations.

It so happens in the investment management process the risks that are already identified as certain and definite are only analyzed to preven

Abstract

There has been continued indication of the shortages of physicians and nurses in hospitals across Oman and this is often seen in the media on regular basis. As a consequence, there has also been increased debate on the policy circles among scholars, stakeholders and researchers. Most of these debates often seek to establish whether the shortages are caused by lack of supply of the healthcare workforces or there is increased demand for the caregivers.

Besides, there could also be a problem of misdistribution. The analysts and other experts also debate as to whether the solution to this problem would be to build more training institutions for graduate physicians and increased the number of slots for the healthcare providers as well as create more incentives to attract people into the profession. The study will aim at identifying the factors that influence the availability of the healthcare workers as well as those affecting the demand. The second objective will be to investigate the impact the unbalanced demand and supply of these workforces has had on the service provision in the healthcare sector.

To attain these results, the research will use a literature search to identify these factors and categorize them and finally assess them for better understanding. There are a number of categories that these factors fall under and this study will offer an analysis which will be very important for the stakeholders to comprehend and then finally address the problem of deficient healthcare workforce. Essentially when the stakeholders comprehensively understand the factors affecting need and supply of the healthcare workforce, they will be able to find ways to adapt or use the means recommended by this study. The study is valid as it applied analyses, databases and the Countrys supply and demand model to study the existing profile and the future supply of service providers.

Introduction

Background

The global shortage of healthcare employees at the moment has become a problem for both the developed and the developed nations as the world continue to witness dynamic migration of these workers as indicated by the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) 2004; International Council of Nurses 2006 and the World Health Organisation 2006 reports). In the countries that have sufficiently high income, there are international programs for recruitment used for addressing the problems of scarcity, enticing the physicians and nurses from the developing nations (Burchan et al, 2003, p. 67).

Over the recent past, there has been a lot of literature and research about this crisis from the perspective of the internationally qualified nurses who were recruited to the United Kingdom NHS and also in the United States of America (Smith, et al. 2006; Bach 2007; Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 38).

Oman has a unique healthcare workforce system. The country occupies a small area in Middle East and expatriates form at least over one quarter of its two million population. The statistics could be higher considering that this was based on a report from the census in the late 1990s (Ministry of Information 2006a).

In this study, the investigator exploits the trends that have been observed in Oman. The country has experienced unique trends of recruitment of the local healthcare workers as well as the international strategies. The researcher has suggested that probably the social, historical, economical and political factors are the main challenges to the process (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 38). This is because these factors could be the ones creating impediments to the participation of the healthcare workers in employments hence affected the healthcare workforce supply and demand (El-Haddad, 2006, p. 284).

The world health organisation report of 2006 was able to establish the causes of the problems scarce human resources in the healthcare. The report also identified this as the main challenge to the attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs). The shortages of healthcare professionals are on top of the list of agenda under discussion in Oman and just like other countries suffering a similar fate; the country has been seeking to set up a workforce initiative to address the shortage (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 38). The reason why this is yet to be effected is because the solutions developed have always been short-term and at times inadequate.

One main challenge facing the country has been to create a workforce plan that would effectively address the demands of the healthcare sector and supply workers continuously (El-Jardali, et al., 2007, p. 78). Nonetheless, although this is a goal for many countries, very few of them have been able to set up proper strategic plans that can meet the healthcare resource needs. Rather, many developed countries have considered implementing other short-term policies like increased dependence on immigrant, at times this happens to the detriment of the developing nations (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 38). This phenomenon has prompted the need for these developed nations to establish their own model referred to as self-sustainable program for dealing with the healthcare needs (Seboni, 2009, p. 129).

The major strategy of reaching the goals in this research was to investigate the definition and models of and other human health options. Self sufficiency model was a potentially effective strategy and discussing the implication on policy creation was a great platform for studying the healthcare in Oman (El-Jardali, et al., 2007, p. 78).

There is a wide range of agreements in the healthcare profession concerning the needs for the developed nations to make sure that they still have their local supply of healthcare service providers hence reducing the degree of their dependence on the developing nations for supply (Seboni, 2009, p. 129). When there is good and effective healthcare human resource plan, which address the issue strategically by encouraging investment in the creating and training of professionals in the sector. Such a sustainable strategy would probably meet the demands of each nation well.

In the year 2004, a study on the policy implication of the migration of caregivers, the nurses Aiken et al, 2004, p. 72 shows that the most promising strategy for attaining the global stability in the healthcare workforce so that every nation would have its own sufficient supply and sustainable plan for creating employees. That would include the developed nations being diligent in training workforce (Aiken et al. 2004, p. 76). In essence the dependence of the developed countries on the foreign-trained professionals was a clear indication of their own failed workforce policy and poor investment in the healthcare systems.

The Joint Learning Initiative (JLI, 2004) reports present an argument that it would be a very wise idea for the developed nations to struggle to attain their self-sufficiency because their dependence on the immigrants was a very unstable, unbalanced and risky venture. The opposite which is self sufficiency was a much better option both sound and fair (Vujicic et al., 2009).

Problem Statement

In Oman there healthcare sector has been experiencing a reduction of labour supply and very high job turnover and this is a sign of a very dire weakness in the industry. The human resource management exercises in the healthcare organization seem to be dangerously out-of-date and not doing something about it would lead the system into irreversible damage (Sellgren et al, 2007, p. 172). For every problem there is a solution even though for this case, there is no quick fix, but the problem can be managed even though that would take some time, effort and determination (Seboni, 2009, p. 129).

The employee turnover has grown to extreme levels in the Omani healthcare sector; the rate is so high that it is almost reaching the double mark of the countries average in other sectors. This position is alarming and it is fast deteriorating. The statistics reveal that as a result, the healthcare sector loses millions of dollars each year and the problem is a direct danger to the sustainability of the healthcare systems at large (George et al., 2007, p. 106).

Hypothesis

The supply and demand of workforce in healthcare system in Oman is extensively influenced by social, economical and historical factors (El-Haddad, 2006, p. 284). The study will seek to specifically identify these factors and then to categorise them into themes that can be used for policy creation implementation to improve the current situation. Its from such research that the scholars can develop recommendation based on the acquired knowledge hence allowing the decision maker to make informed decisions (George et al., 2007, p. 106). The reason in part as to why the previous strategies of dealing with the problems of turnover and supply have not worked well is because of lack of clear understanding of the problem and the factors behind the problem.

The Rationale

In Oman, the location of study or the case study that the researcher will be working on, the turnover rates among healthcare employees particularly the nurses, paramedical staff and the physicians is very high. Even though, there are hundreds of fresh healthcare professionals graduating from the universities and colleges each year, they are not able to meet the ever increasing demand hence causing an imbalance between the supply and demand of these healthcare service providers (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 39).

The impact of the high turnover rates have great impact on the way these healthcare services are provided at the abovementioned levels. The quality of healthcare is very important and when it is affected, then the quality of care is compromised and this risks the lives of patients (George et al., 2007, p. 109).

Research Questions

The questions that will guide the study will focus on the description of the factors in recruitment strategies and the development of the new workforce as well as those issues affecting retaining of the workers. There are a number of factors that can cause this. Therefore the questions to guide the study will include;

1. What are the factors that influence the demand and supply of healthcare providers at the global scene?
2. What similar factors that affect the international market of healthcare practitioners also affect Omani systems? This will help to make comparison of the international situation and the Omani condition. Similarities and differences in Omani and the rest of the world especially the major players in health market.
3. Review the current impact of unbalanced demand and supply of the healthcare service provision at the various levels of provision and the quality of the services provided. This question addresses the current position of graduating numbers of practitioners and the number of those leaving the profession to other markets as well as those resigning from the profession or retiring. This will help to focus on the deficiencies and categorization of the causes of these shortages (Badrick, 2011, para. 3).
4. What are the possible solutions to the problem of imbalance of demand and supply of healthcare providers and how to manage oversupply of healthcare workforce as well?

For all intents and purposes, the above questions are for guidance purposes and the research will still be very extensive to cover a wide range of information necessary to address the issue and generate recommendation that can help to manage the problem by developing a sustainable and highly efficient system of preparing and retaining professionals in the industry (Dovlo 2005, p. 78).

Significance of Study

A strategy developed in 2003 by the World Medical Association says that a country should not entirely depend on immigrating personnel from other countries to supply its medical care service demands (Turoyanagi 2008, p. 23). In the current position of healthcare recruitment and retention practices can be figuratively related to the act of pouring water into a bucket with holes, then the analogy is very simple to understand. This concept however gets intricate when analysis of the concept is done critically (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 40).

At a glance, the idea of pouring water in a bucket with holes seems to be an understandable exercise. Now as the water is poured, the holes work and the reality in the healthcare system becomes clear when the water supply diminishes and the holes become bigger. The concept is very obvious in Oman because the healthcare systems keep on recruiting in a manner similar to the bucket analogy and their decision of hiring are based on the deficiently informed sources, pitiable organizational intelligence and improperly defined considerations (Dovlo 2005, p. 78).

All the healthcare organization is the country are at a point where supply is very low yet the exit is very high just like the many holes in the bucket. At this level, it is cheaper and easy to mend the bucket which is like the healthcare market rather than affect the supply (El-Jardali, et al., 2007, p. 78). This study offer a good platform for the reinvention of the human resources management practices (Sellgren et al, 2007, p. 172), leverage of the organizational models, culture in the healthcare systems, development of competencies, and development of rewards systems to take care of the problem of egress.

If this has been the problems that why is it that the healthcare practitioners have not been doing so? One of the reasons is that there is time constraint as that would require greater sacrifice of time, resources and general awareness of the bad management of the human resources, turnover issues and the wasted returns (Paul et al, 2006, p. 53). This study is very important because it will expose the holes in the bucket or the factors that affect the supply especially the turnover factors and those that cause reduced supply. However the astronomical expenses the wasted (water) human resources have been taking away from resource base was also a factor to take into consideration (El-Jardali, et al., 2007, p. 78).

This study will offer simpler analyses for the managers of the healthcare industry to comprehend and acknowledge the dynamic. This is because without such, then it would be very impossible to effectively execute the management of the human resources. Research has shown that this is true since the incremental and refinements have not been able to provide concrete solutions to the problem and the revolutionary changes still need to have very high level of organization to manage successfully (Sellgren et al, 2007, p. 176).

Literature Review

Introduction

Healthcare service delivery is very important to any nation because a healthy nation is a thriving nation. However, there has been a problem of balancing between the supply and demand of healthcare workers in Oman. This study will therefore seek to identify the factors that affect demand and supply of health workers in the country. In order to achieve the objective of the research, a number of sources not more than ten years ago will be searched for previous literature on the topic and other related material.

This means the sources will not go beyond 2000. The databases and materials to be searched will include Association of American Medical College, Alliance for health reforms, medpac, paraprofessional institute, BMC Health Services Research, biomedcentral.com, UNICEF Oman, World Health Organization, and Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean, Omanisation Policy and World Health Reports among other sources. The words supply and demand of health workers, why health workers migrate, emigration of doctors and nurses, challenges of healthcare workers, recruitment of doctors and nurses, need for healthcare workers, and working conditions affecting healthcare workers home and abroad will be searched.

The objective of conducting this research will be attained by developing a process that investigates how innovating and sustaining the core training capability in medical practice can be efficient in managing the dependence on the US, UK and other nations especially from the developed world (Alonso-Garbayo & Maben 2009). By mentioning the words like core and moderation of the reliance of others implies that the problems of immigration among physicians and nurses was still hard to totally eliminate as there are a number of human rights also in play (Ahmad OB., 2005).

The ICNs report (2006) indicated that it was important the countries build their own national self sufficiency for managing their local needs on terms of supply and demand of healthcare services providers. This was a need for the developed and the developing countries alike.

Against this backdrop, there is an increased use of the terminology self-sufficiency when addressing the issue of healthcare workforce in the world. This review will also seek to understand what exactly could be the meaning of this terminology. The term is used interchangeably with self-sustainability and there are many other aspects that relate to it (Al Dhawi et al., 2007). These phrases are also used in different contexts as well. Sometimes it is not clear what the phrase means and how it applies to the context of medical care workforce in Oman (ICN 2006).

There is no generally agreed concept that guides the process of planning on how self-sustainability could be reached or even how the concept could be generally be assessed, or whether it could in fact be achievable. Part of the literature review defines the term in the context of Omani healthcare workforce. In this context, the paper identified the factors affecting sustainability describing them in terms of those that enable it against those that impede its feasibility (ICN 2006).

There has also been extensive research from the developing nations from African and others like India and Philippines (Lorenzo, et al. 2007; Seboni 2009). Nonetheless, there has been very little done on the problems that have been encountered in the Middle East nations like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain (Brush and Sochalski, 2007, p. 38: Maben, et al., 2010, p. 293). There are a number of high income areas in this region that have come to be very influential in terms of determining the dynamics of the workforces.

This is because these countries are rich and greatly depend on the international recruitment so as to staff their increasing healthcare demands. These also pose a great competition to the other countries in the world (Maben, et al., 2010, p. 391). Whereas demand for physicians and nurses is increasingly growing, the matching international supply on the other hand has been decreasing.

Why Healthcare Professionals Migrate

There are a number of possible causes of migration among professionals of healthcare service provision (Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region, 2006). These determinants include social unrest in their home countries, poverty, and war.

These are the main causes in the low and middle income countries (Stilwel, 2004). Middle income countries still suffer the problem of unemployment and this also pushes healthcare professionals away especially those from Middle East and Africa. The workers then tend to move to areas where there is still some hope of employment. As a consequence, countries like Britain, Canada, and the United States are the main destination of these migrating workers (Stilwel et al, 2004). The major attraction in this context is the lucrative pay and better working terms.

Systems that Encourage Migration

It has been also found that some nations like Philippines encourage its citizens to emigrate (Stilwel et al., 2004). In Oman and other Arab nations, migration of healthcare workers is mainly because of the obstacles of the institutional systems hindering their personal prospects for social mobility. Besides, many emigrating healthcare workers complain that they are not well rewarded for their skills and the type of work they do plus there were many obstacles in their efforts to advance their professions (Fargues, 2006).

By and large, the factors that have been found to cause migration of professional healthcare providers fall into two broad categories, namely the push and pull factors:

The Push Factors

The push factors include; dangerous working conditions and crime  many people in Arab countries in general have experienced crime first hand or they know someone who has suffered such fate (Lorenzo, et al. 2007). This is often a reason why healthcare professionals can choose to leave their country for fear of these violent experiences. They therefore opt to move and practice their profession in a place that is safer (Ahmad OB., 2005).

Another cause is often the low salaries given to professional health workers on their home countries. The developed countries have better pay for the foreign workers and at times it could be as much as over 20 times the country of origin (Buchan & North, 2009). This is the reason why counties like Nigeria and India have become grounds where doctors are trained and then exported to the international market.

The low wages and unguaranteed employment cause insecurity among the employees. This coupled with the fact that the cost of living is constantly increasing therefore very high expenditure; the workers are often unable to gain financial dependency (Buchan & Perfilieva, 2006). This often causes them to move to places where they are able to gain financial independence and even start a family as they are guaranteed of the job.

There are also a number of other job related dissatisfaction issues. The home countries offer very high workload for less pay, the health systems are dysfunctional, there are a lot of problems of deprived professional standards when interacting with workmates or handling patients and to make matters worse the rules that govern educational and professional advancement are unfair (Buchan & North, 2009). As a result there are many cases of nepotism in the recruitment programs and the employees lack motivation.

The home countries have very limited career options because of underdeveloped healthcare systems and specialization, as a result the qualifying doctors and nurses lack their desired type of specialty hence the zeal to work is affected (Dovlo 2005). As there are many qualifying professionals, there is very high competition for the limited positions in training and at work.

The Pull Factors

Most of the pull factors are just the opposite of the push factors. For instance, doctors, nurses, and paramedical personnel would migrate because of better pay and in search for better social and economic structures in foreign countries, something that they lack in their home countries (Buchan & North, 2009). Health professionals are also attracted to top foreign countries because there are able to access a wider range of career options and professional development to advance their careers.

This gives them the satisfaction and hope to better their lives. Foreign countries offer enough exposure to skills and the training focuses more on the procedural skills where the trainee are able to access more responsibilities and get trained on stick adherence to the set standards of care (Cutcliffe & Yarbrough, 2007).

The developed countries have well defined job responsibilities in the healthcare systems therefore present better working conditions. They also have regulated healthcare workload and the employees do not have to work under pressure. Workplace relationships are well managed and employees enjoy collegial relationships with each other. There are also better reward systems that are set in place for the healthcare workers for their dedicated and professional work (Cutcliffe & Yarbrough, 2007).

Regarding working conditions, the foreign countries offer lighter workload where employees work in functional health systems where there is better professional standard. The career advancements programs are based on the educational and research as well as teaching levels in the institutions of higher learning. Foreign nations especially the developed nations present a chance for continuous medical education and a guaranteed job security (Cutcliffe & Yarbrough, 2007).

Other pull factors in general include good living standards, easy access and availability of information, better communication technology, security and promise of better education for the children.

Recruitment of Professionals

The public sector depends on the private recruiting agents to this process and past research found out that the private practice did not depend too much on these agencies. These studies showed that for the recruitment agencies to maintain the ethical standards, they did not actively carry out the processes of recruitment in African countries since they were at the lower end of development (still developing countries) (Edward et al., 2008, p. 23). This is because the African nations still suffer the highest shortage of health service providers (International Labour Organization, 2005, p. 48). Work permit or licenses are only issued when the workers meet some eligibility criteria after which they would then be allowed to start working.

The study will seek to confirm or disapprove that the reasons for migration to and out of Oman were similar to those encountered in other GCC sates like the United Arab Emirates. The reasons behind emigration previously highlighted included the search for good salaries and work benefits, the search for better work conditions and wider career prospects (Buchan & North, 2009, p. 131), the search for a system that has international work standardization at the place of work and search for safer and stable job and also in pursuit of modern lifestyle where there are better infrastructure or social amenities and multi-cultural environment (World Health Assembly, 2006, p. 45).

Since 1970s many Omani graduates have been moving to the United States and European countries. Currently there are over 40% Omani medical graduates over the past 30 years working as nurses and doctors in the west (Martin, 2007, p. 49). This percentage is very high even though it basically seems to be very small but based on the countrys population size, Omani ranks among the highest countries exporting physicians and nurses to the US and the EU. These findings focused on the issues concerning the Omani medical graduated in the US and in the European nations (Bach, S. 2007, p. 387; International Labour Organization, 2005, p. 48).

Studies show that these graduates were aggressive in seeking board certificate in order to work in the medical research profession just like the American and other international graduates from the developed nations. The study will be keen on investigating the supply of health care professionals in terms of the graduating students as well as retaining those already in the workforce. Addressing the issues that lead them to immigrate to the developed nations to work there (Alonso-Garbayo, & Maben, 2009, p. 45).

The push and pull factor across the world have include those that deal with pay, better life, career development and modern technology or advancement as already indicated in the literature review (World Health Assembly, 2006, p. 45). These factors will be assessed and then described and categorized into groups including financial concerns, social factors, professional career advancement and residency training.

Nurse migration in Oman has very little information but it is quite significant. There are very few studies conducted to investigate it and even fewer have been done to assess its enormity as well as the predictors of the possible migration out of Oman (International Labour Organization, 2005, p. 48). Studies in the Arab countries indicate that at least one out of five nurses obtained a Bachelors of Science in Nursing Degree (BSN) in one to two years following graduation (El-Jardali et al. 2008b). In order for the nurses to qualify for assignment abroad, they are required to have at least one year of professional experience before they could be granted employment opportunity by an international employment agency.

The reasons for migration among nurses were mainly from the push factors and they basically included deficient career development opportunities, meagre salaries, and inequality with other workers and not being appreciated as health professionals (International Labour Organization, 2005, p. 54). Causes for leaving the countries were very varied across different careers. For instance, the financial reasons were the major factors causing the nurses to leave the Middle East.

While in the European Union region the factors influencing migration were mainly continuing education and career prospects. Even though most nurses intending to leave the country did not have intents of returning home, others indicated that both financial and non-financial enticements could encourage them to come back and practice at home (Bach, S. 2007, p. 387).

Most nurses reported that the main pull factors to encourage their stay in Oman or cause them to return would be better salaries, improvement of the work benefits, appreciation of their effect and support from the management, improved workplace polices and environment as well as better social infrastructure and technology to improve performance of the nurses (Pond & Barbara, 2006, p. 1453).

Self Sustainability in Oman

Defining Self Sustainability

Self sustainability means that the system should be able to produce the solutions or meet its needs independently (Merriam-Webster Online dictionary 2010). Applying this definition at workplace is somehow intricate particularly in the planning of the healthcare workforce.

Transferring the concept of having enough supply to meet the demand in healthcare results in a reasonable definition of the self-sustainable concept (Al Dhawi et al., 2007); This means that the healthcare system in Oman should have enough domestic stock of physicians and nurses who can meet the requirements or needs of the industry (Akl, et al., 2008). The concept has not however incorporate wider elements in Oman like the quality of care, the productivity of the practitioners, the employee mix and retention strategies. This breeds a broad range of policy alternatives for attaining self sufficiency that range far beyond mere increment of enrolment of the student nurses and doctors (Seboni, 2009).

Policy implication would translate into issues of reduction of student attrition and increasing the productivity of the employees. Increasing the participation is a tricky venture and can be achieved by bettering the available technology, elimination of the non-nursing duties, increment of the full-time working rates and increment of the participation rates in the profession.

Omanisation Program

In the year 1998, the Omani government developed a program termed Omanisation program (Al Dhawi et al., 2007). The Omanisation campaign was not only intended to ensure that the citizens found jobs but it would also decrease the countrys reliance on the foreigners for service provision and in the process it would be able to achieve self-reliance in human resource, (Ministry of Information, 2006a).

This meant that the country would be able to produce its own doctors and nurses to supply the growing demand of healthcare professionals. The program was a governments top priority venture and it had set the goals of ensuring that the government services would have at least 72% of the employees as Omani citizens in six years (Ministry of Information, 2006a). The government also set a stipulation that the private sector would do the same in so as to be allowed to operate in the country.

The program was however without obstacles though ministers came o

Abstract

The article reveals the authors experiences as a channel through which the grounded theory approach can be utilised in presenting qualitative research. The detailed description of the methods used in collecting, interpretation and analysis of data are fully given. The study is about international marketing and focuses on appropriate implementation of communication mix within the automobile industry. The area of study was in Turkey, where various stakeholders were involved in interviews. The information obtained assisted in exploring the various marketing communication mix utilised by most automotive companies in the Turkish market.

The main purpose of the article is to present the readers with detailed practical descriptions of various market situations on the ground. The paper reveals the nature of thinking and practical processes involved when generating theory from data collected majorly from conducting in-depth interviews. The article starts by introducing the topic in relation to the industry and country of study, then, the definition of the problem statement, research questions and objectives of the study. This is followed by the detailed literature review in the second section and then research methodology, data collection and analysis, discussion of the results and finally the conclusion and recommendations based on the findings.

Introduction

The motor vehicle industry is rapidly growing. The demand for new car models is on the rise, thus forcing major car manufactures to strategise their businesses in order to enhance their market share and global presence. Concurrently, there are emerging markets for major car manufactures. It is evident that such manufacturers strive to enhance the sales of their automobiles, augment revenues, and realise remarkable profitability (Norcliffe 2006, p. 56). Vehicles are demanded internationally despite the noticeable competition; thus, manufactures must enhance their production rates, cost-effectiveness, supply chain, and customer satisfaction to meet the changing market demands. This will augment their competitiveness and increase its market share in emerging markets.

The automotive sector in Turkey began far back in the 1950s with few companies such as Ford, Renault and Fiat dominating the domestic market. The market has continued to grow owing to several factors such as the large size of the domestic market and expansion of international trade. There has been a significant move made in foreign investment within the sector. Automotive firms owned through the partnership between Turkish and foreign companies include Ford Otosan, Oyak-Renault, and Tofas-Fiat, while the main producer of motor vehicles Toyota is fully under the ownership of Japanese. The level of car ownership within the country has tremendously increased over the recent decades with the current level being at 100 cars per 1,000 people. Domestic demand is expected to stabilise in the near future leading to efficient planning and higher margins (Cavusgil and Nevin, 1981).

Automobile companies are coming to realise the increasing demands for cost-effective vehicles in the realms of fuel consumption, performance, and other environmental concerns. Nonetheless, there are special marketing strategies that chief motor vehicle manufacturers must establish, ratify, and embrace in order to capture and retain clients in emerging markets. They range from the production of cost-effective cars to intensive promotions. Contextually, providing customers with variety is equally important. It is important to agree that the motor vehicle industry is quite competitive. This is shown by the emergence of new manufactures, distributors, and the variety of products from which clients can choose from. It is crucial to consider such facts when developing appropriate business strategies in order to remain competitive and relevant in such markets. Additionally, major companies like General Motors, Nissan, Peugeot, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and others have formulated appropriate business strategies in order to enhance their competitiveness, market visibility, and customer services (Appiah-Adu 1998, p. 118).

International marketing generally involves the marketing of goods and services beyond the boundaries of the organisations home country. There is a need for companies to learn the various avenues they should utilise to enter foreign markets hence increase the level of their global competitiveness (World Investment Report, 2006). The international marketplace always presents a quite different environment compared to domestic markets. The two environments vary in terms of market sizes, buyer behaviour, as well as marketing practices. These should be carefully evaluated by international marketers based on the market segments within the targeted areas. International operations always have effects on a companys operations and management hence forms part of crucial decisions made by firms. Decisions to operate within the international markets depends on several factors which include; deliberate policy decision, reaction to specific business opportunities, economic trends, political stability as well as competitive reasons amongst others (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989).

In the process of tracking the nature of development within global corporations, the records have clearly revealed repeated, a sequential pattern of expansion. The initial step involves understanding the nature of the environment within the international market. Then there is a consideration based on the appropriate proportion of foreign to total sales, which involves the decisions on the number of countries to do business and the countries to enter. Then decisions on the particular markets to enter based on the rate of return on investment against the risk involved. Companies venturing into international market undergo a process referred to as an internationalisation process. There is also the act of deciding on the effects of products, promotion, price and distribution within individual foreign markets. In most instances, regions are treated as single markets and, at the same time, the various automobile models standardised by region with promotions helping in the projection of the uniform image. Such orientation assists in enhancing coordination by discounting national differences and is well revealed by the French automobile industry, which showed evolution process involved in international marketing strategy (Caves, 1971, pp. 1-27).

The act of the extending internationally endues companys management with the responsibility of setting geographic emphasis. This may range from developed nations within Europe, North America amongst others and developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The task of the management team is to ensure that strategic decisions are made capable of directing business development operations in alignment with the companys objectives and at the same time congruent with activities within the target region. The decisions should include both macro-environmental and micro-environmental issues. Macro-environmental issues include economic, socio-cultural and political factors while micro-environmental issues are market attractiveness, skills, resources, product adaptation as well as a competitive advantage. Firms with highly-rated technology products are known to have concentrated activities within developed regions of the world. However, doing business in developed countries is far much preferred over developing nations since the business modalities within the business environment are easily predictable, and, at the same time, security on investment is assured.

Emerging markets are characterised by geographic region and level of economic development, which presents the main point that makes them differ from developed economies. The higher degree of risks is prevalent in markets within developing regions such as Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia; this is attributed to less stable economic climates within the regions. Any firm operating within these areas is inclined to be subject to a high level of uncertainty and fluctuations. Developing countries presents a number of barriers which include huge foreign indebtedness, instability within governments, shortcomings within the foreign exchange, government entry requirements, high tariffs, corruption, piracy, communication adaptation and bureaucracy.

Frequent changes within the political environment in developing countries present a major setback to normal business operational activities and may result in drastic reductions in growth. Making decisions on global marketing strategy will, at some point, compel firms to make specific choices on individual countries they intend to compete. One of the components of developing a global marketing strategy is making decisions on where to compete and selection of appropriate territories. In such emerging markets, Turkey stands as one of the key ones for the motor companies. This dissertation will be based on the case study of Turkey. In order to collect viable, reliable, justifiable, and valid data and marketing managers of different major car manufacturers in Turkey will be taken as the main source of information. Revealing common patterns and differences between these companies will be taken as the main aim.

The Turkish automotive sector has been highly recognised to be international; statistics in 2008 showed that over 80% of Turkish vehicle production was sold within the global market. Within the same year, only around 70% of the vehicle sales within Turkey were from other countries. The custom Union with the European Union has made it possible for other Multinationals to integrate their Turkish plants within their global production plans. Statistics show that the current Turkish market has 21 automotive manufacturers, 15 vehicle manufacturers and 6 tractor producers. Main producers include Ford Otosan (US), Oyak-Renault (France; passenger cars); Tofas (Fiat and Koc) and Toyota (Japan), these are considered as the main producers and accounts for over 80% of all vehicles manufactured in Turkey. The market comprises of vehicles used for different purposes; these include; passenger cars, commercial vehicles, as well as tractors. Turkey is recognised as one of the top exporters of vehicles to Europe. In the year 2008, the sector recorded averagely US$ 25 billion, which indicated an increase of 10%. The top exporting companies include Toyota, Ford, Tofas, and Oyak-Renault, amongst others (Andrews, 1971).

Business operation within the international market requires additional investment in terms of management time and capital. Venturing into new territories also present both new business opportunity and risk. This is since business ventures in new countries takes time to develop, and profits may show after a fairly long time, the firms should first go through careful analysis of the investment climate within the country and ultimately determine the level of market attractiveness. The lead market concept can as well be applied in the process of identifying markets for special emphasis. There is a need to understand competitors within various market segments since corporate success results from focusing on the provision of value and quality to consumers instead of competition.

The attractiveness of an industry is determined by five forces which determine the level of attractiveness of an industry, these include; the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of new entrants, presence of substitute products, presence of rivalry firms within the industry. Competitive advantage sustenance could be achieved through the provision of superior value using differential advantage. Means of competitive advantage include product differentiation or marketing mix and work best when combined with the competitive scope of activities. Majorly it is considered that the general sources of competitive advantage are skills as well as resources owned by the firm and which can be used in the process of developing quality products and discovery of new markets. Global marketing strategies involve the application of a set of strategic marketing principles within the various world market segments. The difficulty arises in the determination of profitable marketing operation elements.

Research methodology, which was utilised in this research, incorporated a systematic approach structured to solve the concerned research problem systematically. All the research methods and techniques used in this study, as well as the logic behind them, were demonstrated for clarity. Besides reliable/valid secondary data, marketing managers of different major car manufacturers in Turkey were the main source of information for the prospected dissertation, as mentioned earlier.

Problem Definition

Due to challenges fronted by emerging markets in the automobile industry, it is important to investigate further on the matter. This considers how different automobile organisations are handling their businesses and marketing strategies in emerging markets. Firstly, it is hypothetical that emerging markets (in the automobile industry) such as Turkey have fronted various challenges to major car manufacturing companies. Hence, they require special attention in order to meet the demands of such markets. If this is true, then, there must be viable marketing strategies assumed by these companies in order to remain competitive in such markets (Khanna, 2010). It is crucial to recognise such provisions in the marketing contexts so as to remain relevant and uphold competitiveness. The questions provided are of some concern when considered critically and can be subjected to investigations as mandated by this research proposal (McDonald 1992, p. 54).

Various reasons have been employed in defining the current automotive market situation within Turkey. Competition within Turkeys market has intensified amongst industry firms, and at the same time, structural changes have been eminent in the economy, especially after major economic crises in 2001. The crises led to the development of complexity within the Turkish automotive industry making the firms to adjust their capabilities for the purposes of counteracting the changes. The various changes within the automotive market environment have thus shaped the nature of competition and, at the same time, stimulated realignment within the export firms (Banga, 2006).

Turkey has experienced growth in the number of players within the Turkish automotive industry, and this is attributable to the liberalisation of the trade policies, regional agreements and the liberalisation of foreign investment regulations made it possible for new entrants to the emerging market. However, due to the increased number of players within the saturated market, firms are pushed towards exploring new strategies and sales opportunities in both the international and local markets. The expansion of the Turkish economy made firms to experience high competition owing to change within the business environment. Before, the market operated under high tariffs hence protecting the automotive firms from foreign competition. Records reveal that foreign ownership within the Turkish automotive firms is much higher compared to other industries.

Additionally, enacting proper business and marketing strategies in such contexts is considerable and proper. It is evident that investigating such matters can actually help in knowing the exact marketing strategies assumed by major motor vehicle companies in the emerging markets (Bandyopadhyay 2001, p. 13). Additionally, it is crucial to elaborate on such matters with due precision and other mattering concerns. Numerous organisations in the automobile manufacturing industry have managed to grasp considerable market share and vitality in their businesses by attaining remarkable customer satisfaction. This is quite crucial when considered critically in the business context. Precisely, it is debatable and researchable whether the major car manufacturing companies use special marketing strategies in order to conquer emerging markets with their products (Chilisa 2012, p. 2).

Aims and objectives

Accordingly, the intended research was to unveil the marketing strategies that major car manufacturers in emerging markets assume in order to remain competitive in such markets. This objective was narrowed down to reveal trends, similarities and differences between corporate strategies in order to enhance some precisions within the entire study. The objective was drafted with consideration of the most available data. The research used the readily available data for the purposes of emerging with viable research findings. As indicated before, the automobile industry is quite competitive hence require appropriate business strategies that would allow its players to attain competitiveness. Since there are numerous players in this industry, every company must strategise appropriately in order to outdo the rest and remain aggressive in a similar industry (Carson & Hine 2007, p. 23). This is a considerable fact, as indicated before.

Preferably, it is important to enact viable production, marketing, and distribution strategies in order to conquer emerging markets with the required novelty and appropriateness. This objective incorporates Turkey as one of the emerging markets in the automobile industry. Illuminating this objective with respect to Turkey forms a credible foundation from which the argued facts lie. There is accessible and credible information discussing emerging markets with regard to the automobile industry. As indicated earlier, the intended research unveiled the marketing strategies that major car manufacturers in emerging markets use in order to enhance their market share and remain competitive in such markets.

Frequently, automobile manufacturers have to venture into the new markets so as to enhance their market divides, sales, and profitability, as indicated before. Emerging markets contain such opportunities hence the need to establish and ratify viable marketing strategies in such markets. This research endeavours to unveil this phenomenon while using examples from relevant countries as well. It is important to recognise the strategies that such companies use to storm the prospected markets in future (Marshall 2006, p. 1). Such strategies might vary from one company to the next depending on the country involved, the business objective of the concerned company, and the available competition in the region.

The objective of this research proposal is to unveil the patterns of marketing strategies in the realms of their success and appropriateness. The concerned pattern considered the differences and similarities of the business strategies assumed by automobile companies. The whole business prospects lie on this perspective. It is crucial to consider various aspects of these business prospects in order to remain relevant and aggressive in the market. There are similarities noticeable amidst the business strategies used by the involved companies (Dunn & Halsall, 2009). Such tactics are meant to enhance the market visibility enjoyed by the involved companies. The differences that exist in such context relates to the objectives of each and every company. Evidently, every car manufacturer has established unique marketing mechanisms in order to grasp a considerable number of clients in a given region. Precisely, the research aims at unveiling the differences and similarities in the business strategies used by different automobile manufacturers in the emerging market. Turkey is included in this context since it forms one of the emerging markets considered by major car manufacturers (Calof, 1994).

It is crucial to know whether car manufactures have considerable stakes in the emerging markets and what they can do to enhance their presence, market share, and profitability in such markets. It is important to consider such aspects in the realms of business. Since globalisation has boosted the prosperity of numerous businesses, adopting viable business strategies is important (Ferguson 2006, p. 351). This is applicable in the automobile industry where the business has been globalised both economically and in the distribution channels. Enacting viable marketing strategies will help considerably despite the witnessed competition in the industry. Actually, emerging with viable marketing options will establish and enhance the required competitive advantages and other relevant marketing and business provisions in the entire contexts.

It is from this perspective that the whole prospective arguments lounge.

Since the automobile market is challenging (fluctuates in response to fuel cost, technology, and performance), it is proper to convince customers with appropriate products that serve their varying demands with appropriateness. Each market segment demands a different kind of cars. The concerned company must consider these provisions in order to remain relevant in the entire marketing context. This relates to the similarities and differences that occur amidst the business strategies employed by the motor vehicle manufacturers in order to capture reasonable market share in the emerging markets (Semple 1992).

In order to meet this objective, the research applied appropriate and feasible research methodology ranging from research design to the presentation of the findings as indicated earlier. It is essential to enhance business prospects in various organisations in order to emerge with an appropriate conclusion with regard to marketing tactics. Since automobile manufacturers are competing for global market share and other viable competitive advantages, they have established both internal and external business practices that allow them to attain such goals. Emerging markets are tricky to handle hence demanding appropriate business perspective in order to remain relevant and competitive in the entire market (Noble 2005, p. 83). It is from this case that the entire business prospects lie with precisions.

Following the aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), various organisations have assumed this provision to enhance their market appropriateness and global presence. This constitutes the mandates of this proposal, as mentioned earlier. Identifying the business strategies used by car companies in order to handle the emerging market is important when considered critically (Czinkota & Ronkainen 2007, p. 88). This objective proved critical to this research following its guidance to entire research methodology and other relevant research provisions. Additionally, the mentioned objective was found to be researchable through establishment and utilisation of critical research methodology. Marketing strategies are able to dictate the success of a given company in the emerging markets, as indicated before. With respect to this objective, it is crucial to consider the viability of such business strategies with respect to the market involved in the entire business contexts.

Central Research Question

What marketing strategies can globalised car manufacturers utilise to enhance presence, market share, and competitiveness in the emerging markets? This formed the central question that the concerned research tried to answer alongside credible findings at the end of the study. Contextually, the research questions assumed in this context relates to the mentioned marketing strategies applied by the major automobile manufacturers to enhance their market presence in the emerging markets with respect to Turkey. There is a critical business provision in this context due to the numerous influences created by varying market strategies. Evidently, the ability to apply considerable market prospects and marketing tactics can actually help in grasping and retaining potential customers in the automobile industry (Gillespie 2011, p. 34). Due to competition evident in the entire context, the research drafted viable research questions meant to trigger the extraction of remarkable marketing options.

In this context, the concerning question was considered as relating to the most accessible data with respect to the concerned research methodology. Precisely, the central research question was; what are the marketing strategies applied by major car manufacturers in the emerging markets? It is from such strategies that the whole business scenarios related to automobile dealers rely on. It is proper to consider various aspects of this concern before rendering everything inconsiderable in various contexts. Ability to manage the business prospects in such circumstances is considerable (Miller 1998, p. 2). Additionally, unveiling the similarities and differences assumed in such situations is important. Another important issue in this scenario relates to the demanded business prospects in the entire set-up. It is from this consideration that the entire business provisions lie as indicated earlier.

Upon execution of this proposed research, it was possible to unveil whether there are similarities and differences within the strategies assumed by various automobile manufacturers in the emerging markets (Neergaard 2007, p. 67). After the research had emerged with marketing tactics used by major car manufacturers in emerging markets, it was possible to discern the disparities noticeable in the entire context. This indicated the viability of this proposed research question. It acted as the driving force for prospected research. This proved helpful in solving various business prospects when considered critically. Ability to discern the differences and similarities assumed in this circumstance proved important and considerable.

It is the mandate of the concerned organisation to grasp the required business prospects so as to attain a remarkable market share and global presence in the realms of marketing, sales, and profitability. It is crucial to recognise such research questions following their ability to elicit the required responses to the concerned topic. Such questions help in redirecting the research objectives and help in executing a focused study on the concerned topic. This is quite interesting when scrutinised critically due to its ability to provide viable business prospects for the concerned automobile organisations (Majumdar 2001).

Literature Review

Comparing and contrasting the works done by various authors helped in the literature review during research execution. According to Özerdem (2009, p. 23), Neergaard (2007, p. 67), and Ferguson (2006, p. 351), emerging markets have presented lucrative business opportunities to the automobile industry and its players. This has forced major car manufactures to device novel methods that would augment its marketing strategies in such regions. Contrastingly, Doole & Lowe (2008, p. 65) indicate that emerging markets are unique and demand special marketing strategies in order to succeed market-wise. It will be vital to illuminate the kind of strategies that such organisations employ with respect to marketing (Özerdem 2009, p. 23). This is helpful in determining the fates of such firm in the emerging markets.

Leingpibul (2006, p. 97) identifies one of the marketing strategies employed by automobile firms to grasp the emerging markets. This incorporates improved marketing techniques employed conventionally and contextually by such firms. Relatively, Czabke (2008, p. 75) demonstrates that marketing aspects have improved in the recent past due to the emergence and embracement of technology among other market provisions. Other sources have equally demonstrated this provision. Numerous businesses have been forced to avoid conventional marketing strategies and venture into creative, novel, relevant, and cost-effective marketing models. Major car manufactures have equally embraced such marketing provisions in order to enhance their competitiveness and other marketing provisions in the concerned emerging markets.

Comparably, Sengupta & Chattopadhyay (2006, p. 95) indicate that some firms have employed the use of the internet to enhance their marketing endeavours and reach numerous customers at once (Rosa 2001, p. 445). It is possible to reach potential clients globally by using internet marketing strategies and other viable mass media provisions in various contexts. In contrast, Sprenkle (2005, p. 32) shows that there are other marketing options apart from the internet that can be employed locally and work tremendously.

In addition, Czinkota & Ronkainen (2007, p. 98) discern the contribution of technology with respect to international marketing. It is important to agree that the emergence of technological aspects in the production sectors, transactions, distribution, and marketing has allowed numerous organisations to expand their businesses. This is critical when considered in marketing and business realms. Every major car manufacturer has employed unique and distinctive marketing methods in order to outdo other players. This includes Toyota, Nissan, General Motors, Mitsubishi, BMW, and prominent car manufactures endeavouring to venture into the emerging markets with novelty, creativity, and competitiveness with regard to marketing (Colwell 2006, p. 68).

While comparing information from various journals and books reviewed, the major similarity in the entire context is that all tactics are meant to enhance the market share, global presence, sales, revenues, and profitability. Additionally, they are targeted to storm emerging markets with novelty and distinctiveness. This is meant to enhance competitive advantages assumed by such organisations (Leingpibul 2006, p. 97. Harris (2004, p. 97) study the marketing strategies employed by the concerned firms. The proposed research will unveil the entire provisions of novel marketing techniques.

According to Sarvary & Parker (1997, p. 24), another marketing tactic shown by numerous sources is the production of a diverse range of products (automobiles) that serve the varying interests of customers as indicated earlier. Contrastingly, these sources provide varying opinions in the marketing context. It is also important to enhance the variety of vehicles so that every customer can have a choice (Czabke 2008, p. 75). On the other hand, Weihrich (2010, p. 4) argues that since emerging markets present diverse customer tastes, major car manufacturers have strategised to provide a variety of vehicles that will handle the situation with the desired precision. This will enable them to enhance their market divide, global presence, sales, and profitability required. It is important to consider such marketing strategies due to their ability to lure numerous customers into buying the desired products.

It is crucial to consider the significance of diversity in the realms of products. This marketing strategy tries to provide customers with alternatives. Thus, customers will continue to satisfy their needs with regard to automobiles. Almost every automobile organisation produces several motor vehicle models for a different class of people and with different tastes (Doole & Lowe 2008, p. 6). This is a crucial provision in this context due to its viability and other considerable provisions. It is crucial to consider such viable market trends with precision. Additionally, managing to consider business provisions is important in the marketing context. There are varying concerns that relate to varieties in the motor vehicle context. Additionally, considering various business aspects has been critical to car manufacturing organisations (Weihrich 2010, p. 4). These provisions have allowed major motor vehicle manufactures to launch and embrace their businesses in the emerging markets. It is through this consideration that the entire business prospects with regard to automobile industry lie.

Comparably, Majumdar (2001, p. 2) and Khanna (2010, p. 45) argue that some manufactures have adopted the production of hybrid cars to meet the demands of the emerging markets customers with satisfaction. Such companies have strategised to capture niche markets, which had not been exploited by other car manufacturing organisations. This marketing strategy has enhanced the performance of most v

Introduction

The question of leadership effectiveness has stormed the behavioral sciences for a long time. There has been extensive research on the effectiveness of leadership style and of theories in different areas of work such as business, nursing, education, military, and politics. The leadership in each case has been adjudged to be an important element in all forms of leadership studies as it is believed by behavioral scientists is that the head of the institution and her style of handling the organization makes a lot of difference to the way the institution is organized and works. One of the questions that is repeatedly asked by leadership researchers is who is going to lead. The question drives many of the functions and operations in an organization. However, behavioral scientists have dwelt over the leadership question somewhat differently, for they want to know who should rule. This is a question that desperately needs to be answered when general elections occur during electing the leader of the state, or there is supposed to be a change in leadership in an organization, selecting a new principal for an educational institution. This is an important task for it is imperative to evaluate leadership potential. Based on the judgment of leadership and its potential future in the organization is determined. If the answer to finding the right leader is done incorrectly, the consequences are adverse for teams, nations, armies, and even economies.

Studies on leadership in behavioral science literature are abundant. Volumes of research papers are published on the topic every year. Bass has conducted a meta-analysis of 7000 books, articles, and presentations on leadership research showing the vast number of research work done in the area (Bass, 1990). A few of the theories of leadership that were researched upon were path goal theory of leadership (House, 1996), leader-member exchange (LMX) (Graen & Cashman, 1975; Dienesch & Liden, 1986) , normative decision theory (Vroom & Yetton, 1973), and transformational and charismatic leadership (Yukl, An evaluation of conceptual weaknesses in transformational and charismatic leadership theories, 1999). However, the effectiveness of these theories may also be seen in different forms of organizations.

Research in healthcare leadership has increased considerably due to the increased demand and constrained faced by the authorities eager to reform health care systems (Brook, 2010; Fisher, Berwick, & Davis, 2009). Though there has been adequate discourse on the need of medical leadership, physicians have been ambivalent to take up a leadership role whether it was in their current operations or renewing of their ob roles for the future. However, most of the physicians due to leadership roles were disenfranchised and decided retreat to care delivery and taken a policy of wait-and see (Fisher, Berwick, & Davis, 2009).

The work that front line physicians do is challenging, and physicians who decide to take up leadership roles actually embrace leadership roles face significant amount of barriers in term so of financial constraint and status distinctions (Mountford & Webb, 2009). Further lack of training also causes a great impediment to their success as leader. The complexities that medical leadership involves leads to uncertainty, as most of the medical practitioners are unfamiliar with the leadership styles and therefore, are often ill-equipped to lead.

The implication of the leadership theories and their applications though not completely documented in medical academia, however, it is irrefutable that leadership is a vital part of modern organizations. Therefore, delegation of work to the proper department that operates independently is essential. Leadership also affects the quality of health care provided to the patients and therefore affects the decisions taken by the policy makers. In this respect, one must understand that leadership roles are not constraint to the top level of the management only but is dispersed to various levels of management and administration. Leadership may be required in every level of the management. This also includes tasks related to the management and administration. Various researchers and academicians have differentiated between the concept of management and leadership.

In academia, many believe that management is the method of bringing stability and order in work while leadership taken on a more transformative role to lead toward constructive change (Storey, 2006). In healthcare industry the importance of good leadership at all levels of the hierarchy is important as the service is related to the live of patients. Therefore, the leadership of the chief executive officer along with the others like the physicians, nurses, pathologists, etc. are all important for delivering the right service and proper functioning of the institution. Leadership research, therefore, relates to a gamut of leadership related topics such as personality, ethics, competency/skills, teambuilding ability, behavior, etc. Leadership research is not limited only to understand the leadership behavior of the leader but also the efficiency of the smaller leaders such as team leads in order to understand their effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to undertake a through literature review of the leadership theories in other fields such as management or political science has to offer related to leadership in order to embark on an analysis of the study of leadership effectiveness in healthcare service.

Definition of leadership in general management literature is varied and extensive. Leadership is defined based on various aspects such as traits, behaviors, influences, role relations and occupations. Peter Drucker has defined leadership is a unique manner: the only definition of a leader is one who has a follower (in Yukl, 2010, p. 20). Leadership may be defined as the behavior of an individual & directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal. (p. 21). Another definition of leadership is based on the verbalization of the visions and long-term goal of the leader and in helping in creation of an environment, which allows achievement of the set targets. Leadership has also been defined based on the leaders ability to understand what people are doing and how successful they are in working together with high degree of commitment. In other words, different researches believe leadership to be a different thing based on their perspective. No single research can point at leadership in completion, rather they just point at one aspect of leadership. Therefore, while understanding leadership theory one must understand that there probably are as many leadership theories as there are leadership researchers. Based on the understanding of the leadership theories that has been derived through an evaluation of the literature, the following chart has been made.

Table 1: Leadership Theories.

The difference between management and leadership roles has been extensively studied in literature. Various research articles published demonstrate the definition of effective leadership. Bass (1990) has mentioned that there are as many definitions so leadership as many as the number of researches available for it. However, a comparison of management roles and leadership has only made the researchers understanding of leadership clearer.

Abraham Zaleznik (1992) in his article published in Harvard Business Review discusses the difference between managers and leaders. He point out that leaders are those who are responsible to energize the system, and work almost like a catalyst. Zaleznik demonstrates that it is the manager who pursues control and discipline while the leader energizes the organization towards a specific goal:

A managerial culture emphasizes rationality and control. Whether his or her energies are directed toward goals, resources, organization structures, or people, a manager is a problem solver. & From this perspective, leadership is simply a practical effort to direct affairs, and to fulfill his or her tasks, a manager requires that many people operate efficiently at different levels of status and responsibility. (Zaleznik, 1992, p. 126)

Therefore, Zaleznik believed that managers were there to retain stability of the system while leaders are those who stimulate the system and steer it towards its goals.

Bennis and Nanus (1985) too have demonstrated various differences between leaders and managers. According to them, leaders are the one who are well connected with the important people. They also believe that leaders are more committed and seek greater commitment from their subordinates; they are more focused and are viewed by others as asset to the organization. Leaders are also supposed to share information with others adequately, and enable networking among subordinates that helps in easy flow of information. They are focused on how things are to be done, and they value secrecy in organization often leading to lack of proper communication. Managers tend to be more compliant themselves, they seek compliance from subordinates, and they are at awe with formal authority. These ideas have been used and built upon by many researchers in subsequent years.

Table 2 summarizes the differences between a manager and a leader. The stress is more on the conceptual and the practical differences between the operations of both. Historically, leadership literature has shown an unanimous agreement on the difference between the functionalities of a leader and a manager. However, there is still a lot of difference given by different researchers.

Table 2: The difference between Management and Leadership.

Based on the various leadership theories and researches, the next step is to formulate the research question for this particular research. This is a study of leadership in the healthcare domain, it is important to first define leadership as is understood in health care. Then the effectiveness of each leadership style and theory is to be analyzed based on past literature. The aim of the paper is to understand the leadership styles that can be effectively utilized in the healthcare industry. The paper will first trace the definitions of leadership in health care leadership literature. Then it will demonstrate the various approaches to leadership. The third step would be to discuss the most important leadership traits and skills for effective leadership in the health care industry. The fourth section would deal with determining the source of leaders sources of power and her influence on subordinates. The fifth section will deal with the process of leadership development. The sixth would demonstrate the dissimilarities between transactional and transformational leadership. The seventh section would describe the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership success.

Leadership in HealthCare Industry

Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head (not how can always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to always be done. Florence Nightingale (1969) (quoted in Oliver, 2006, 38).

These immortals words of Florence Nightingale are immensely important in leadership study as they point at the main patents of health care leadership important for providing high quality medical treatment to patients (Oliver, 2006).

Donnelly (2003) points out that leadership is not a static point but rather is a journey towards the greater goal of the organization. Therefore, the actions of leaders are easily reorganization. This is a difficult task for identifying an efficient leader is almost impossible. There are many literature that discusses whether leaders are born with their abilities to lead or they acquire those traits over time and through experience. In addition, other researchers have focused on the primary qualities required for a leader to become truly effective (Donnelly, 2003; Oliver, 2006).

One of the most important characters of a good leader is to be able to explore the motivations or beliefs that drive individuals and teams. A leader also can ascertain the perceived visions and goals of success by individuals and teams. In this respect, Oliver points out that a true leader requires the ability to critically appraise the team process and outcomes on the path to achieving a shared goal (Oliver, 2006, p. 39). Health care providers be it doctors, pathologists, or nurses, should have a clear insight into the leadership styles in order to have a clear picture of what is required to run a healthy and smooth flowing health care service. Therefore, the aim should be look for leaders within the organization rather than trying to create them. The root word for the word leader is path or course (Oliver, 2006). According to Adair (2011) it is a journey of a leader through the organization in achieving set goals and visions through appropriate use of power and authority.

Presently, both academicians and practitioners believe that all clinicians need to have leadership expertise so that they can take good clinical decision and help in imparting better medical care. Therefore, the need to develop a patient centered health care system has developed the need to have better and all-rounded leader at various level of the hierarchy (Cooper, 2003).

Oliver (2006) points out that a leader is an individual who demonstrate a specific set of behaviors that may differentiate her from others. Usually such different set of attributes or behavior is observable in groups. Oliver further says that two specific aspects are signs of a leader. They are Individual attributes or styles essential to become a successful leader and organizational skills required to manage the process of change (Oliver, 2006, p. 41).

The modern form of leadership was used in the 1990s with the charismatic leadership style that was also called the renaissance leadership style. This style of leadership aimed at utilizing power effectively and utilizing their leadership influence into influencing key players into supporting change. We have seen charismatic leadership in the leadership styles of Winston Churchill and J.F. Kennedy.

A connection between the transformational style of leadership and the charismatic leadership can easily be established. Oliver (2006) points out that charismatic leadership is less likely to delegate in a way that empowers the workforce. The focus is that of building collaborative structures and networks to effect change. (p. 42)

Trust on leadership ensures smooth conduct of the functions of an organization and helps in estimating the way a task may be completed. Leaders can become leaders only if there is a consensus among subordinates to nominate her as the leader. Without popular support, one cannot become a leader. Therefore, it is the subordinates who officially nominate a leader and allows her to have the title. However, it is upon an effective leader to utilize this recognition to her advantage and help in initiating change within the team is a mark of a successful leader. One of the key roles, therefore, that leaders have is to initiate change within organizations.

The most important aspect of being a change agent is to have a clear perspective and understand the requirement of the change process and that of the organization. a change process requires proper planning and communication of the change plan, which is the explicit role of a successful leader who acts as a change agent. The leader is expected to operate as a transformational leader in such situations. However, depending on the requirements of the project, inspirational or influencing leadership may be required. The competencies that a leader holds help him to ascertain his self-capabilities ad also allows the leader to understand how he could instruct and motivate his followers.

Application of Leadership Theories in Healthcare

Why understanding the theories of leadership in context of healthcare important? Further, why is it important to know the importance of the leadership theories and the one that can be applied in healthcare service? In order to answer this question, it is important to understand the way healthcare industry has transformed over the years. Further, it must be noted here that though the service sector has undergone tremendous change, it is important to understand that leadership must be able to handle the changing needs in the industry. With the exciting new changes in technology and other related developments, a leader too must be abreast with the increasing autonomy the sector is going to provide to its employees and the changes that it will bring to the nature of work. The leader must be abreast with the possibilities of new kind of works that may come ones way like writing policies, and implementing them, challenging the old, obsolete policies, and evaluating others. Effective leadership is an important thing that health care organizations have in order to provide high quality service as well as remain financially viable. All employees at different levels of the healthcare service, who require a supervisor to overlook their work and depend on other peoples performance, need to become a leader in the new healthcare system. Therefore, leadership quality is paramount to get work done. Based on our understanding of the present health care industry scenario we may present a few challenges that leaders may face.

Challenges of Transformation

One of the primary jobs of a leader in health care sector is to bring about changes that are required in the organizational operations. In order to make a health care facility completely successful and operational six major challenges has to be overcome by the leadership.

1^st Leadership Challenge

The first challenge that is faced by the leader is to rearrange the cultural codes and values of the institution. This is understood through establishing a contrast between the health care systems and the cultural contrasts that may exist in the proposed changed system. If the older rules have to replaced by the new ones, it is the leaders duty to inform the rest of the organization. Therefore, it is the job of the leader to reframe the basic values and belief system of the organization. For instance, a healthcare professional is recruited based on her abilities and qualities as a health care provider, therefore, making it her responsibility to than any other professional attribute. His task therefore is to transform the professional work environment that previously existed in the organization. Rewriting the values of the organization more highly priced than the professional attributes necessary. Some of the autonomic values have to be reframed within the professional philosophy of the healthcare providers that would incur a transformational task. The changes that are transformational in nature requires participation of employees who are ready to change their core values and require a much different kind of leadership style than that of a transactional leader.

Transformational change, that requires to change the core value of the organization, particularly amalgamation of traits an behavior that are accumulated to authentic the qualities of a true leader, that are necessary for success in a changing environment. It will be upon the top managements to address the more difficult problems facing the organization through their established leadership systems. They will have to look into the authentic leadership traits that are required for the younger leaders to manage their tasks. Intrinsic traits allow leaders to possess desired values to drive the organization through changing times.

2^nd Leadership Challenge

The second leadership challenge in faced in order to create capabilities for improvement in the organization. The challenge is brought about not by the nature of the challenge but rather by the breadth and length of the challenge that a leader faces. The goals of transformational vision are different from those of transactional leaders and hence they aim for not just theoretical improvement but ideal performance. Another condition entails that the teams will expose the strain in existing leadership and leaders and will demonstrate their weaknesses as opposed to the virtues of current leadership. This would help in areas of communication with the apparatus, spread of work, and the developmental aspects of new leadership. The superior leaders will be responsible to frame the execution plan for aggressive and widespread improvements both at the level of teams, projects, and organizations.

3^rd leadership challenge

This pertains to the difficulty to collaborate across different precincts. Many of the problems today arise from fragmentation of health care patients care system in the course of treatment. For instance, lack of data sharing throughout the community is a cause of problem that results in waste and duplication in erroneous medications, tests, and lost opportunities. This causes a great hindrance to the medical preventive care. Similarly, leaders are also expected to collaborate with the competitors to establish a credible and transparent system that is to the best benefit of the public. This will lead to the transformation of the community wide medical system. Further performances of the leaders are affected through transformation need and the break out with older patients. The competitive propriety may develop fully into a collaborative system that nurtures relationships for the best interest of the organization. this is not something that mostly leaders do naturally, rather this is required for the strategic stewardship off the organization and enhance community care.

4^th Challenge

For many of the health care facilities a problem arises to create a business culture that nurtures both business results as well impart community benefits. The tangle of mismatched and opposing payment policies actually creates a contradictory situation wherein leaders are baffled with the idea of doing good while conducting business. Therefore, the business value of the health care business will be determined not only by the profits the business makes but also by quality of care, it provides to its patients. Therefore, it would upon the leaders to transform the collaborative and the supply chain aspects of the business, to develop a new business environment that can sustain qualitative growth toward achieving organizational goals.

5^th challenge

Given the turnover rates of CEOs in health care, it is highly likely that the transformational agenda will play out over the tenure of at least two CEOs, if not more. Drive system-level, rather than project-level results. Research has proved repeatedly that we can do small projects to land a boat on the coast. The tangle of mismatched and contradictory payment methods, regulatory constraints, and organizational business models that constitutes the American health care system does not provide an obvious way to do well by doing well. How will the transformational agenda become so deeply engrained in the culture, leadership succession, and other organizational systems that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a new CEO to derail it? It will therefore be necessary for leaders in this transformation, in collaboration with purchasers, payers, and regulators, to develop new business environments that keep pace with and support the improvements in quality they are achieving within their organizations. Improvement capability is far too often left to a project-by-project approach, and seldom is linked consciously to a plan to drive far-reaching system-wide improvement in outcomes of interest to the community and patients.

6^th Leadership Challenge

Look after consistency of reason over the lifelong transformational excursion. How has this studying technique influenced my private / pro objectives? This test is similar to that challenged by WWII guides acknowledging the attack of Normandy. By what means will consistency of intention be looked after over the lifelong? It is truly an additional thing to bind to a full-scale attack. Very frequently, exhibition change is seen as a pet task of the present CEO, as opposed to inserted into the DNA of the conglomeration itself. How have the aforementioned speculations affected my private expert style? That is what has been lost from extremely numerous medicinal services conglomerations approach to value. Converting a conglomeration will require significant investment.

what means can the aforementioned speculations be brought about in my private/master life? While the facts may confirm that certain properties of value for example wellbeing are basically basic standards (First Do No Harm), and hence ought not be put to certain math of business worth, it is likewise accurate that if medicinal services conglomerations bankrupt themselves, they cant perform the aids required by the neighborhood. For numerous current human services frameworks, there is no clear relationship between enhanced value and enhanced business comes about. It might be one thing to demonstrate at an activity level that one could bring a vessel on the seashore of Normandy and unload certain troops and weapons. This is a genuine issue in social insurance. What initiative speculations best fit my private quality framework? What is the quality of this activity? Pioneers will compose change to move conglomeration wide exhibition, not boutique ventures.

Leadership and Ethics

In most of the leadership studies, the main aim is to ascertain why one follows a leader and how does a leader make others follow her. Being a leader is a challenging job, for many followers would be looking up to you, and you will be responsible for the decision-makings of the organization or team.

Studies have indicated that insights is a component that influences moral behavior and fruitful business, however the intelligence identified writing shows that goodness is additionally a prerequisite to demonstrate that moral organizations are more fruitful (McKenna, 2011). If an individual comprehends his or herself, they can come to be more mindful of their ethical conduct, which can in turn, make them more conscious of the affections of others when they are undertaking their moral qualities and standards (Kakabadse & Rozuel, 2010).

Morals have expansive influence in all parts of life, which implies that it moreover has impact all hands on deck and organizational mentality. This compass can permit an individual to assemble an ethical viewpoint, which will give them the impetus to comprehend the issues to support them in fabricating a code of morals. Rainbow (2002) stated that a supporter of this hypothesis will never break his guarantees to a companion and dependably holds fast to the law. In other words, a supporter of this speculation will never break his guarantees to a companion and dependably holds fast to the law. Utilitarianism is an objective regulated hypothesis that underlines euphoria or the most stupendous useful for the most fantastic number and includes the capacity to expect the results of an activity (Altekruse, Engels, & Freeman, 2004).

Morals have extensive influence in all parts of life, which implies that it likewise has influence on organizational mentality. This compass can permit an individual to fabricate an ethical point of view, which will give them opportunity to comprehend the issues to help them in asse

Introduction

The current economic climate is characterized by stiff competition, which threatens the survival of many companies. Given that retail is a low-margin business, many companies consider entering the global market to improve profitability. Entering a new business market has always been disastrous but can also be rewarding in case of success. Business competition, especially with local sellers, is dynamic and unpredictable. A firms success largely depends on its strategic choices and competitiveness- resources and capabilities, vis-à-vis rival companies. With the right strategic choices, new market entrants can acquire a competitive advantage. This paper presents an international marketing plan that will help Norrona exploit the market opportunity presented by a foreign market  South Africa.

Company Analysis

Norrona is a Norwegian company that specializes in outdoor clothing, equipment, and sports gear. Its customer population mainly comprises cross-country adventurers, bikers, mountaineers, surfers, explorers, and skiers.¹ The company structure is a divisional structure based on products; it supports three major product lines- Norrona Retail, Norrona Sports AS, and Travel Adventure. Travel Adventure line focuses on providing traveling services to customers.² Each division (product line) has five departments: design and development, finance, research, marketing and sales, and supply chain. The departments are hierarchical; the CEO heads the company, followed by directors in charge of the departments, and finally, the general employees.

The companys sports line sells leather straps, cotton clothing, canvas backpacks, and technical garments designed to meet customers needs. Norrona Sports AS line has over 100 employees working in the five departments, 28, 104 workers working with their manufacturers, and 21 suppliers sourced from eight countries.³ Company activities such as clothes design, fabric choices, marketing, and sales are in-house while production is outsourced. The suppliers provide raw materials while the manufacturers make the garment, equipment, backpacks, etc. The Norrona Retail line was established as part of the companys distribution strategy. The company has three retail stores in Stockholm, Sweden and ten stores in Norway, and two in the United States.⁴ The retail line is responsible for marketing its products to gear outlets, clothing stores, and resorts.

Target Country

Norrona should consider South Africa as a market opportunity to boost its sales and improve its competitive edge. South Africa should be considered as a new market segment for various reasons. First, it is one of the major tourist destinations, providing the company a potential market for their newly-introduced travel adventure services. South Africa received 16.44 million tourists in 2018 alone.⁵ This figure has steadily increased for the last five years and is anticipated to reach 19.6 million by 2023.⁶ As previously mentioned, tourist resorts are Norronas key customers of interest. Norrona sells its products to resorts that offer outdoor activities as part of their travel experience packages. Because South Africa has the largest number of branded hotels in Africa, its market value to Norrona increases.

Mountain climbing, diving, surfing, mountain biking, river rafting, and hiking are major outdoor activities in the country. With over 100 registered paragliding and hang-gliding service providers, opportunities in aerobatics, skydiving, and microlight flights are massive.⁷ Although some outdoor clothing such as jackets/tops, T-shirts and shirts, wetsuits, and pants are available in the country, products designed for skiing/snowboarding, mountaineering, and surfing are not available. Additionally, the outdoor products sold in South Africa are available through third-party retailers. The company should consider opening a local retail store and introducing its travel adventure packages in South Africa to boost revenues. Due to the popularity of outdoor activities in the country, South Africa presents a valuable market opportunity that can be exploited.

Strategic Plan

Entry Strategy

A company entering a new market should compete aggressively to get a strong market foothold. Succeeding in a new market is challenging and lays many risks. Retailers entering new markets are likely to fail as they are to succeed; even giant retailers like Walmart have failed in their attempts to expand into foreign markets.⁸ Furthermore, researchers argue that multinational companies (MNC) perform better in their home markets than foreign markets.⁹ The authors note that most MNCs usually fail in foreign markets and postulate that the failure is caused by institutional voids and the competitive advantage owned by local sellers.¹⁰ Market entry barriers include fragmented markets, new entrants inability to meet customers needs and expectations, and cultural differences.

Often, the existing market players have a competitive advantage over new entrants due to their intimate knowledge of the local market. Domestic players are familiar with local talent and capital markets, which allows them to cost-effectively serve their customers and put competitive pressure on new entrants. In contrast, new entrants cannot afford the luxury of preferential customer selection¹¹. They have to implement effective strategies to exploit each customer segment in the surrounding areas to grow into serious competitors in the new market.

While investing in a foreign market is risky, avoiding it is equally destructive. Studies indicate that firms that avoid investing in emerging markets might not survive the business environment for long.¹² However, new market entrants can attain a competitive edge in the foreign market with effective strategies. The effective entry strategies include differentiation, strategic timing, and tapping into the institutional voids. Norrona can use these strategies to gain a foothold in the South African market:

Entry Strategy 1: Differentiation

Differentiation is a strategy that involves introducing a unique and distinct product or service to increase competitive advantage. South Africa has over 300 branded companies that offer outdoor clothing.¹³ Of the 300 brands, only about 50 specialize in apparel designed for outdoor adventures.¹⁴ Competition from 50 domestic brands is a challenge but not impossible to differentiate. What will make Norrona products different from the local competitors is that its products are specialized for outdoor activities popular among tourists.

The incumbent brands mostly sell apparel for hiking, camping, off-road, watersport, and safety equipment and gadgets. On the other hand, Norrona products are designed specifically for cross-country adventurers, bikers, mountaineers, surfers, explorers, and skiers. Because no domestic brand has designed products for this specific population, Norrona can carve its market niche. The company should pursue a high-end differentiation strategy by creating a brand image that advertises its differentiating features. Instead of identifying as an outdoor clothing retailer, Norrona should identify itself as a specialist in apparel for cross-country adventurers, bikers, mountaineers, surfers, explorers, and skiers. The production strategy should focus on product performance and top-notch quality.

Entry Strategy 2: Timing

Timing is critical when deciding to make a strategic move. A company can either be a first-mover, a fast-follower, or a late mover. Given that no company in South Africa has invested in apparel for the aforementioned outdoor activities, Norrona can adopt the first-mover strategy. First movers are companies that are always first to introduce new products into the market. Being a pioneer accrues many advantages, including creating a strong brand image and reputation, securing cost-advantage, and getting protection from patents and copyrights.¹⁵ Additionally, a first-mover has the opportunity to set the standards in the industry, giving it an edge over its competitors.

However, it is worth noting that being a first-mover does not guarantee market success or competitive advantage. Differences in tastes and preferences across cultures can affect a companys performance in a foreign market. A product or strategy deemed attractive in the home market may not be as attractive in another country. First-mover must have competent financial and human capabilities, large-scale production, effective distribution, and marketing capabilities to become a market leader consistently.¹⁶ First movers cannot sustain their market position in areas where technology advances are key success drivers. Unless a company has strong research and development (R&D) and design capabilities, it can retain its market position in the long-run.

Fortunately, as previously mentioned, Norrona has five major departments where R&D and design are among them. The company should plan to invest in these activities to acquire a strong foothold in the foreign market. It must continuously combine its product features with customer value and reasonable cost/revenue/profit to be successful. Otherwise, the fast-followers and slow movers with substantial resources in the industry can overtake it.

Entry Strategy 3: Tapping into the Institutional Voids

Tapping into institutional voids can help a company overcome institutional barriers such as tariffs, cultural differences, and bureaucratic barriers. Institutional voids refer to the regulatory systems weaknesses, local culture, and contract-enforcing mechanisms in emerging markets. A company must consider how the political, social, and justice system will affect its business operations.¹⁷ Does the local government guarantee property rights? Does it have restrictions on foreign investment? Does the product market allow efficient R&D and flow of product information? What is the status of physical and technical infrastructure in the country?

Once a company has addressed these concerns, including the labor and capital market, it can adjust its business model to meet the local demand and live up to the expectation of its customers, stakeholders, and investors. The business model should be restructured to fit the local market demands, but its core value propositions should always remain unchanged for long-term business success.¹⁸ A company can achieve this long-term success through creating customized offerings, take advantage of low-cost labor, use leadership or management talent to maintain growth, and use cutting-edge technology. Facing the institutional barriers head-on increases a companys success chances.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning Decisions

Segmentation Strategies

Geographic Segmentation

Geographic segmentation involves categorizing customers based on geographical units such as cities, regions, or neighborhoods. The surfing culture in South Africa is becoming popular due to its great beaches and good waves. These features make the country one of the top surfing destinations in Africa. In the geographical segment, Norrona should target locations with beaches or shorelines. The company should also consider main cities such as Durban as a target population. Durban city hosts several internationally recognized beach sports, including surfing events, canoe marathons, Giants Cup Trail Run, and the Karkloof classic MTB.¹⁹ The Giants Cup Trail Run is an annual 5-day trailing that involves running and hiking through the Maloti Drakensberg Park foothill.²⁰ The event provides a market opportunity for the companys hiking and mountaineering apparel and gears. On the other hand, the Karkloof classic MTB event is a major attraction for cyclists in the country.

The geographic segment will include regions popularly known for sports tourism. The company can then distribute the products based on these geographic segments. For example, the company can supply mountaineering apparel to Maloti, an area where mountaineering and hiking are common. The cyclists apparel and gears can be supplied to Karkloof, a major attraction for cyclists. The surfing equipment and gear can be distributed to numerous beach fronts and nautical tourist destinations.

Psychographic Segmentation

In the psychographic segment, potential customers are categorized based on their personality and values. People can belong to the same demographic group but have different preferences, values, and lifestyle choices. In a world where customer-centeredness is considered the epitome of success, customizing business practices to fit customers preferences is crucial. The key psychographic variables Norrona should consider factors, including social classes, income, and lifestyle. Based on lifestyle, the potential customers can be grouped into price-conscious customers, safety seekers (prefer product quality over price), and affluent and luxurious customers (value the experience rather than pricing).

Behavioral Segmentation

Understanding heterogeneity in individual preferences can help Norrona comprehend the factors that influence their customers behaviors. Norrona can divide its potential customers based on their attitudes, user status, brand loyalty, outdoor activity routine (frequency of product use), their response and readiness to accept their products, and purchase behaviors (for instance, self-treating, spend to impress, and selective extravagance).

Targeting Decisions

An effective strategic market plan flows from a mission statement to analyzing and selecting the most profitable market and then to formulating a specific marketing mix and positioning goal for each product. Targeting strategies include differentiation, undifferentiating, and concentration. As previously mentioned, new market entrants need to exploit each customer segment to be competitive. Therefore, the differentiated marketing strategy is the most appropriate for Norrona, given its maturity stage in the market.²¹ Differentiated marketing involves developing a unique product offering and strategic plan for each market segment. Although costly, this marketing strategy will help the company to meet its customers expectations.

Positioning Decisions

New entrants need to launch effective strategies to gain strong market positions where their presence is minimal or non-existent. Having a strong positioning strategy can help a company differentiate its value propositions from rival companies. The positioning strategy should deliver the brands marketing claims and promises and be strong enough to preempt and neutralize competition.²² Depending on the market segment, Norrona can position itself as a low-cost provider, a safety-conscious company, or a specialist in gear for sports tourism. A strong market position can strengthen the brands image and influence customers perceptions of its market position vis-à-vis competitors.

Analysis of Potential Market Competitors

The major competitors in South Africas market include the outdoor warehouse store, Mountain Mail Order, and Cape Union Mart. The biggest threat is the outdoor warehouse company, South Africas largest retailer in outdoor equipment and apparel. Most of their products are low-priced (R100 to R500). The highest apparel price ranges from R1500 to a little over R7000.²³ Its value proposition is that it offers low-priced and quality products. It sells apparel and equipment for hiking, open road, and open-air recreation. Strengths include a high search engine visibility and a strong market position. Its weakness is susceptibility to product quality weaknesses because it sources products from different brands. Since its products come from different brands, the company has little control over the products design and quality.

Mountain Mail Order is an online store that sells apparel and equipment for camping & hiking, skiing, trail running, and climbing. The company has a weak value proposition: its brand is only known for the list of products it sells. The price range is higher than the outdoor warehouse  products range from R200 to R1500.²⁴ It has a weak search engine visibility and susceptible to product quality weaknesses because it sources its products from different brands. Its core strength is that it has a strong market position: it has been in operation since 1974.

Cape Union Mart is an online and in-store retailer that sells camping and hiking, trail running, mountain biking, and snow sports products. Its biggest threat is that it has similar products listing to Norrona and has strong online visibility. Its main weakness is that it is highly-priced compared to its counterparts: the average apparel price is R500.²⁵ Its value proposition is that it is a one-stop destination, which describes a business where customers can find most of what they need from the store.

Marketing Plan

Product Strategy Image, Personality, and Identity

Deciding what products to offer is an important task that requires a deep understanding of customers wants and needs. Product strategies involve focusing on the products anatomy, including its attributes, branding, design, packaging, and labeling. Creative product attributes such as packaging choices, names, and design can create a positive image in a customers mind. Brands deliver added value to products, influencing a customers loyalty to the company.²⁶ The company should strive to create a brand image that offers functional, emotional, and psychological benefits to customers.

Norrona should use a logo that communicates its values and goals. For example, if the company chooses to advertise as a safety-conscious company, it must use a logo that depicts safety. It can also select logo symbols that its target customers can relate to within the marketplace. For example, using the Karkloof falls as a logo can connect with the countrys cyclists who frequent the area for annual cycling events. Selecting the right product design, including colorful clothes or those that resonate with nature, can communicate the brands personality. The product design should incorporate features that define the character or image Norrona wants to be associated with within the market.

Norrona has a competitive advantage over its competitors, given that its product design is done in-house. Unlike its competitors who co-retail  sell retail products for other brands  Norrona designs its products. This way, the company has more control over the production process. Norrona should use long-lasting, safe, and comfortable fabrics to increase the functional component of their products. The products quality and functionality can create emotional commitment and influence buyers perception of their products.

Because Norrona sells a range of products, it should use the BCG matrix to determine which products are worth investing in, especially in the new market. BCG matrix classifies business portfolios into four categories divided into two main axes: the growth rate and the relative market share. The matrix can improve marketing decision-making efficiency and promote strategic planning based on product performance.²⁷ The growth rate and the relative market share axes can reveal the likelihood of a given product to be profitable in terms of the cash the product generates and the cash required to support it.

Promotion Strategy

Advertising

Promotional approaches have four main goals: to differentiate, remind or reassure customers, inform or create awareness, and persuade customers. Studies indicate that promotion affects international performance by influencing price standardization.²⁸ Norrona has three main promotional goals: to develop brand awareness, to develop relationships and distribution networks, and to persuade customers to buy its products. Advertising can help the company reach a wider audience, which quickly raises its brand awareness. The classical conditioning and repetitive nature of the promotional campaigns enhance memory retention of the promotional message. The company can use advertising techniques such as emotional appeal, promotional advertising (i.e., giving customers free product samples), sharing appealing statistics and data, and endorsements.

Through advertising, the company can also increase its brand equity. Brand equity refers to the value customers place on a brand rather than its products. While products can be imitated, brand equity cannot because it is intangible. Researchers recommend using the brand extension strategy to increase brand equity.²⁹ Brand extension is a strategy that involves introducing a new product into the market through another brand that has a strong market presence. Brand extension strategy has a direct influence on a companys brand equity.³⁰ Given that consumers tend to be wary and mistrustful of new brands and products, Norrona can use the endorsement technique as part of their brand extension strategy to reduce possible mistrust among retailers, distributors, and consumers.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a promotional strategy that involves profiling customers and creating highly-personalized and targeted messages for their customers. This strategy is relational, highly interactive, and flexible and can deliver personal messages to the target audience.³¹ The companys marketing strategist can use emails, social media, and direct mails to reach the target audience. A common technique is sharing product reviews and customer experiences on the social media platform.

Price Strategy

Price wars are a form an offensive strategy designed to draw customers away from competing companies. Unless rival companies respond with their price cuts, low prices for equally good products can lead to a good market share. However, blindly following price cuts can be ill-advised considering their devastating effects on a companys profitability. Companies can respond to price wars through selective pricing strategies, retaliatory price cuts, and non-price strategies.³² A companys pricing strategy will be determined by the marketing objectives, marketing mix, production costs, and organizational considerations. Competition, business macro-environment, and market demand are external factors that can also affect a firms pricing decisions. On one hand, low prices can help a company survive by increasing its demand. On the other hand, high prices can improve product quality perception, increasing business profitability.

The selective pricing strategies include discount and allowance pricing such as offering bundled prices, price promotions, loyalty programs, cash discounts, and quantity discounts. The company can also use a non-price strategy to fight price wars. The non-price strategies include developing innovative products, warning customers of the risks of price cuts, and appealing to distributors to consider the current pricing situation. Given that Norronas primary goal is to penetrate the market, it should consider being a low-cost provider. Low prices can help a company quickly penetrate the market. ³³However, the company should also consider the psychology of prices when making its pricing decisions. Often, customers associate high prices with quality and low prices with poor quality. For this reason, the company should price its products within a reasonable range.

Distribution Strategy

The core drivers of a customers purchasing behavior are prices and the production and distribution strategy. A distribution network refers to a group of organizations or individuals that direct a products flow from the producer to the supplier to the end-user- the customer. A distribution networks primary goal is to ensure that customers receive the right quantity of the right product at the right time. The major distribution channels include retailers, wholesalers, distributors, agents, and franchisees.

An effective distribution strategy involves selecting the right channel, deciding the distribution intensity, and integrating the channel with core business activities. Norrona can either decide to partner with distribution companies or directly serve its customers through its channel. Norrona can choose one of the following distribution channels:

• Producer &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&.Customer
• Producer &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&. Retailer &&&Customer
• Producer &&&&&&&&&&&.. Wholesaler&&&&&&Retailer &&Customer
• Producer &&&&.. Agent&&&&Wholesaler&&&&&..Retailer &&Customer

If the company chooses to work with external distributors, it should select the distributors that can develop a market instead of those with few customer contacts. The company should always obtain the financial and market data from the distributors to guide their strategic decisions.³⁴ Norrona should strive to create long-term relationships with the distributors and retain control over the marketing strategy.

The company should also adopt selective distribution, which will allow it to distribute products to specific locations. As already stated, Norronas target population can be geographically segmented based on their preferred outdoor activity. A selective distribution strategy will allow the company to select prices that target a specific market segment, providing a more personalized shopping experience. In selective distribution, products are shipped to selected outlets/stores in different locations. A vertical marketing system (VMS) can help the company to optimize its distribution strategy. Through VMS, the producers, wholesalers, and retailers can work as a single, unified, and streamlined group created to meet each customers individual needs.

Conclusion

Norrona can pursue competitive advantage in the South African market by being a best-cost/low-cost provider, offering valuable differentiating product features, and having strong internal resources and capabilities. The companys main strengths include an active R&D department and control over their products design. These strengths can help the company to differentiate itself from the local competitors. Control over the production process and creation of product designs gives the company a distinct competency in producing top-performing products for the market. Norronas major weakness is its weak brand image and market position compared to its competitors. However, with the proposed marketing mix, the company can develop into a main outdoor apparel retailer in the South African market.

References

Arnold, David. 2000. Seven Rules of International Distribution. Harvard Business Review 78 (6): 131-137.

Brands. n.d. Outdoor warehouse (website).

Camilleri, Mark Anthony. 2018. Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product, edited by Camilleri, Mark Anthony, 6983. Gewerbestrasse: Springer, Cham.

Camping, Hiking & Outdoor: Gear & Equipment. n.d. Cape Union Mart (website).

Clothing. n.d. Outdoor warehouse (website).

Cortsjens, Marcel, and Lal Rajiv. 2012. Retail Doesnt Cross Borders: Heres Why and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review (website).

Explore Products. n.d. Mountain Mail Order (website).

Furustøl, Heidi. 2019. Report on Responsible Business Conduct 2019 for Norrøna Sport AS. Etisk Handel Norge (PDF document).

Haradhan, Mohajan. 2018. An Analysis on BCG Growth Sharing Matrix. Noble International Journal of Business and Management Research 2 (1): 1-6.

International Tourist Arrivals Report. n.d. South Africa (website).

Khanna, Tarun, Palepu Krishna, and Bullock Richard. 2010. Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

KwaZulu Natal Sporting Events. n.d. SA-Venues (website).

Poerwadi, Slamet, Hidayat Anas, Purwadi Purwadi, and Mustafa Zainal. 2019. Influence of Brand Extention Strategy, Brand Image and Brand Trust on Coffe Products Brand Equity. International Journal of Marketing Studies 11 (3): 26-35. doi: 10.5539/ijms.v11n3p26

Rao, Akshay, Bergen Mark, and Davis Scott. 2000. How to Fight a Price War. Harvard Business Review (website).

Tan, Qun, and Sousa Carlos. 2013. International Marketing Standardization: A Meta-Analytic Estimation of Its Antecedents and Consequences. Management International Review 53 (5): 711739. doi: 10.1007/s11575-013-0172-5

Thompson, Arthur. 2016. Strategy: Core Concepts and Analytical Approaches. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Education.

Footnotes

1. Furustøl, Heidi. 2019. Report on Responsible Business Conduct 2019 for Norrøna Sport AS. Etisk Handel Norge (PDF document), 4.
2. IBID, 6.
3. Furustøl, Heidi. 2019. Report on Responsible Business Conduct 2019 for Norrøna Sport AS. Etisk Handel Norge (PDF document), 6.
4. IBID, 10.
5. International Tourist Arrivals Report. n.d. South Africa (website).
6. IBID.
7. International Tourist Arrivals Report. n.d. South Africa (website).
8. Cortsjens, Marcel, and Lal Rajiv. 2012. Retail Doesnt Cross Borders: Heres Why and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review (website).
9. Khanna, Tarun, Palepu Krishna, and Bullock Richard. Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution. (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2010), 7.

Executive Summary

Arnold Leisure center is a sport, Leisure recreation outlet lead by a local authority. The core competence of its strategy is dedicated to the highest involvement of grassroots. The organization is more active for corporate social responsibility and equal opportunity. To organize the strategic analysis of the organization this paper has analyzed External environment, SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, BCG Matrix, and Internal Analysis. It has also presented the Structure of Arnold Leisure Centre, Strategic analysis, Evaluation of life cycle, Key Issues and drawn Recommendation to support a conclusion.

Introduction

Ravenscroft, N. (2004) stated that in the UK the local governments have played the traditional role of the foremost investors for sports and recreational. This action of the local governments has been propagated based on alleged allowance defects in the sports and recreational market mechanisms for private entrepreneurs.

Cabinet Office (2002) argued that the state Game Plan guiding principle would makers it clear that the government is much more aware of the participation of grassroots levels participation. As a core concern of the Government, the local authorities particularly emphasized the Leisure center in terms of state facilities, public-private partnerships, decentralization of local government activities, and improving core competence of local Game plan services.

Williamson, D. et al (2004) explained that modern business organizations are well planned with their structure and strategy to accomplishing their vision statement with the expertise of the management and workforce. The organizations are much more responsive with their corporate social responsibility as a part of their operation. The organizations are driving to the global operation after booming operation in the local market. To analyses, a business organization this paper would go for Arnold Leisure center. This paper would analyze the strategy of Arnold Leisure center, its organizational structure, culture, and environment. The paper also looks for the SWOT analysis of Arnold Leisure center to draw the key Recommendations. Arnold Leisure center was well known in the early nineteens dealing with which is now a strong local governmental initiative with fifty fields of operation including electronics, chemicals, and machinery.

Industry Definition

The general prediction of the industry indicates the combination of inhabitants and firms affianced in an exacting commercial enterprise devoid of a comprehensible spotlight of that businesses industry possibly would fit in that economic feature that might be unsuspecting for the many revolutionize in the society that would affect any player of that segment. These alterations could be predicted if organizations are acquainted with their industry as well as the environment. The Leisure Industry is the segment that offers sports, entertainment, and recreation services with required resources. The leisure and recreation industries are dedicated to entertainment as well as furnish life value and living style.

Industry Analysis

Arnold Leisure centre is a wing of Gedling Borough Council, the local government district of North- East of Nottingham City at Arnold. It has enclosed with two parliamentary constituencies where the Arnold Leisure centre services are offered. The Arnold Leisure Centre was established in 1982 with motto Healthy, green; safe and Clean. Arnold Leisure possesses resources as Swimming Pool, Teaching Pool, Meeting, Theatre, Arnold Library building, Cinema Hall, Conference Hall and Licensed Bar where a large number of services offered for the general people with ultra modern facilities. The regulation of the offered services has well designed scheduling keeping full attention to the local population and serving an instantaneous population of around 36,000 local inhabitants with an on site public car park and transport route

Juby, L. (2007) mentioned that the Strategy chosen by Arnold Leisure Centre in Nottingham UK is very significant and the County Council sketched out its vision with aspiration to generate a Nottinghamshire where one and all has an equivalent opportunity to survive, study, play and work in an environment without any discrimination and injustice. It would be a heaven of the earth where citizens subsist in accord and sympathy among interconnected communities based on their values, caring, thoughts and diversity with respect to each other.

Gedling Borough Council (2004) addressed that Arnold Leisure Centre starts its journey to serving the local community of all age group in cost effective manner and as part of corporate programme including four other amenities all over the Borough. The Arnold Leisure centre is famous for its swimming programme all age group with diverse water games also. Its Theatre hall has seats for 176 inhabitants with unconventional use of space with excellent bar facilities when the whole amenities ensure wide range of activities including entertainment.

Recessionary Impact

Under the present credit crash and recessionary economy a number of economic features are work against to impact UK customers spending for indoor and outdoor sports, leisure as well as recreation sectors. The UK economy persists to stumble with pressure of housing market collapse, comprehensive credit crisis, downturn of money markets as well as aggravation labor market and threat of job cut. The effect of Bailout bill and rescue package of the government has been failed to protect the economic downturn and escalating inflation and to increase customers buying power. The UK customers are striving to sustain their previous lifestyles. The recessionary package does not reach to the bottom line people due to high pay executives. Within this scenario decreasing energy prices have facilitated customers as a touchable relief when the state adopted relief articulated in an assortment of customers confidence statistics.

The most traditional customers psychology has been distressed the Leisure, sports and recreation and leisure markets. Mass people are pregnant to have a pickup in the last quarter of the present year performance but the researchers and analytics argued that the Leisure, sports and recreation industry has to be well prepared to face a long-term recessionary impact.

External environment- Global/Social or PESTEL analysis of ALC

According to the view of Porter, M. E. (2004), the modern political, demographic, social, technological factors are reformulating this industrys historical potential. For ALCs external environment can be experimented by PESTEL analysis as below-

• Political factors: Political situation always changes the business environment, increase or decreases the risk such as government changed the taxation policy by reducing tax and it will help people to spend more for leisure time. Recently, government researchers are posing expectation about the growth fitness training and aerobics instruction along with a positive attitude.
• Economic factors: Global financial down turns creates some uncertainty future expenditure of the customer, which may affects on discretionary of the customer, and this market will be adversely affected. Now-a-days people are busy to meet the necessity rather than luxury. The data of ONS¹ has demonstrated that by September to November 2008 the number of unemployment in UK has increased from 0.131 million to 1.92 million. For recent unemployment problem income, savings and investment has decreased all over the world; therefore, people have leisure time but not have sufficient money to expend for leisure purpose.
• Socio- cultural factors: There are merely 3300 health clubs in UK, huge demand and necessity of people causes a great possibility of being successful in this sort of business. UK will arrange 2012 Olympics so it raise the interest in sports, Growth-rate will increase and government will provides incentives or invest in this sectors.
• Technological factors: The industry is technologically upgraded by utilizing numerous tools for personal fitness training, digital equipments, upgrade booking system by software, Internet technology and some new discoveries.
• Environmental factors: ALC has reduced to use of CO₂ to save the world from global warming and ALC is bound to follow the Environmental Protection Laws. Moreover, ALC has few own regulation to protect the environment from pollution and leisure activities are depending on the environmental condition.
• Legal factors: ALC is bound by the rules and regulation of the Government. UK government has passed Civil Rights Act 1964 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 for restricting discrimination in hiring, compensation, privileges, conditions and terms of employment on the basis of gender, race, religion and so one. ALC has to consider the health and safety issues of employees and customers so it use safety equipments and it has lifeguard in swimming pool.

SWOT Analysis of Arnold Leisure Centre

In this SWOT analysis of Arnold Leisure Centre will be find out the organisations strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats that the business faces in everyday operations. There are two steps in SWOT analysis implementations:

Strengths: Arnold Leisure Centre enjoys a number of strengths such as-

• Excellent location for easily attracting customers attention,
• Nowadays, huge number of population are being suffering from various types of problems for example mental and physical disability, diabetes, osteoporosis, sleep disorders etc that can be maintained by regular exercise and gymnastics practices.
• It has 100 well trained instructors and staffs,
• Swimming Pool and Bar is safe place for the visitors,
• It has fully equipped Theatre room, which consists of 176 seats and It has upgraded exercise instruments,

• More than 50% of the total populations pass for the diagnostic and treatment purpose that can be minimized by preventing illness with a wide sort of regular exercise that influence people for the club membership. Therefore, its health and fitness provision is significant;
• Multiple depth of the market size,
• It has strong financial support for expansion as alliances or partnership with hospitals and fitness clubs,
• It has capability of serving people in distinctive way within the family market,
• Arnold Leisure Centre has strong social position because of community respect.

Weakness:  there have some weak points such as 

• Lacking of facilities for customers, shortage of employees, management problems and failure to maximise profits are the main weakness of the company.
• Higher charges for several services cause less and specific customer traffic than the practical necessary groups,
• Crèche resources are not enough for the children so it enables to meet modern consumer expectations,
• It has no future plan or initiatives to expand its business,
• Swimming clubs has used neighbouring-pools in Nottingham for training purpose,
• it has only 50 seats in Licensed Bar to arrange functions but the demand it higher than its capacity.

Opportunities:  it has several scopes for instance-

• Opportunity of serving children, youth, young adults, older and women segments by offering a complete range of all generations athletic, leisure, fitness and past- time requirements.
• It has scope of combining fitness and wellness issue by joint venture other industries,
• By changing the leadership style, it can enhance its profits.
• It has opportunity to arrange more seats in Bar place because it has high demands.

Threats:  it should measure the risk factors-

• Complexity of operating services as complementary of mainstream medical caring,
• High cost of subsidising leisure as well as community centres., which is the barrier for expansion
• It should expand for profits but day to day it has reduced its services such as decrease swimming facilities,
• For the global financial crisis its business will be adversely affected; therefore, the investment for development project of £3.5million will not be effected.

BCG Matrix and Arnold Leisure Centre

The Arnold Leisure Centre can classify the entire of its strategic business units by using the Boston consulting group representation and the growth share has been demonstrated below in accordance with this matrix-

This figure represents that the market growth of Cash cow is low but relative market share is high which indicates that for expansion of businesses it require less investment to sustain the business; however, Arnold Leisure Centre shows opposites market growth.

On the other hand, the market growth and relative market share both are low in case of Dogs, which indicates it needs high investment to develop the financial condition of Dogs and its businesses positions is inverse from the position of Arnold Leisure Centres market growth and relative market share.

This figure also demonstrates the position of Question marks and Question marks indicate low down allocated business units inside the high growth market, they need abundant resources of cash to transmit on their share, and move alone boost them.

Finally, the most important part of this figure is Arnold Leisure Centre, which point outs the highest position of the matrix, which is perfect for its business, which they offers is in the superior market share by way of an enhanced growth rate than several of its competitors. Therefore, it should require low investment than other and it has well setup to furnish their business position.

Internal Analysis

Strategic analysis of Arnold Leisure Centre

Griffin, R. W. (2006), argued that strategy is the game plan of a companys management that evaluates market position, operation procedure, attract and keep potential and growing consumers, achieve organizational objectives and compete successfully. ALC has designed its strategy considering four levels of strategies and market conditions such as-

• Business Level Strategy: this level of strategy should follow because from this strategy, it can be found the ALCs industry situation in relation with other rivals and to increase growth rate it will invest £8.44m for improvement of buildings, £3.94m for the development of swimming pool.
• Corporate Level Strategy: ALC is followed high level of multi-product or corporate level strategy because its sales revenue is not depends on the single-product business,
• Cooperative Strategy: As ALC is a wing of Gedling Borough Council, this strategy is effective and it can formulate partnership with firms through a mutual interest of resources and capabilities.
• International Strategy: This strategy is not fit for ALC as its operational activities is limited to Nottingham City.

In addition, market segment, financial support, technical support exchange, product innovation and development, develop investment process are the reason behind to choose the strategy. These are discuss as follows-

• Target market: School going children, youth, adult, old, and high or middle- class elder citizen.
• Service line: it offers swimming training programme, cinema, health and fitness services, and practicing services,
• Price: it offers reasonable price somewhat below than competitors,
• Distribution outlets: Single servicing center,
• Customer service: Consistent service with training of instructors and staffs by the external expertise, follow- up registration cars and telephone call from different members for getting feedback, regular contact with members with newsletters, telephone call, e- mail or fax, continuous improvement of quality of services.
• Service promotion: A number of promotional efforts will include free classes, consulting services, standard diet suggestions, premium, discounts and coupons for early membership, gift for family membership etc.
• Advertising: Frequent advertising on the center will be promoted at newspaper, radio, billboard, newsletters etc.
• Marketing research: Incur expenditure by 10% to improve knowledge of customer- decision-making process and to monitor competitor moves.

  • Systems: the management system has considered both manual and technological factors. ALC has arranged general meetings in order to sharing the views of employees and exchanging thoughts of teams. Moreover, ALC is fully equipped with IT facilities, which enhance the development procedure and encourage customers on the company. Now, lose of time and energy is being controlled by software infrastructural modification for meeting diversified and changed customer demands.
  • Shared Values: It is the central issues among McKinseys seven elements as it consists of three essential elements culture, believes and values. Culture is essential element to widen the sports and physical activities as behaviour of person varies for cultural. Therefore, ALC will take long-term projects to increase the participation levels within next 20 years. To reach their goals, ALC will be considered financial condition of people and age of interested groups. In this period, ALC will arrange school sports programme to encourage young generation.
  • Skills: To develop the employees performance it should have training facilities in organization but ALC has no separate training course though Gedling Leisure provides ongoing training support for development of employees. Loo R., and Thorpe K., (2002) has developed a study of reflective learning, where teamwork is difficult for conflicts between members and leader of the team. It can be managed partially by training, communicating between team and leaders skills. Therefore, ALC should develop training courses to remove internal conflicts and to motivate the employees.
  • Style: Leadership is an important factor for Arnold Leisure Centre as leadership is an issue that consists of a great deal concerning changing peoples minds frequently in essential form. Leaders can take a strapping or restricted approach in clarifying the path to subordinates the way in which to go. To removing barrier of ALC, they may well polish the path or facilitate the follower to shifting the bigger blocks. In rising rewards, they possibly will provide intermittent encouragement even lay concrete on the way with gold. There are three leadership styles- ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric; among them geocentric style is the ideal view for ALC. This view has the competency to control the accountability and transparency of the entire company. ALC has also considered the Path-Goal theory, which has developed to illustrate the technique that leaders persuade and support their followers to gain the goals in their prefixed path. Syque, (2007) argued that the term path-goal has derived from the belief that effective leaders clarify the path to help their employees to achieve their goals and to make journey along the path easier by reducing roadblocks.
  • Staffs: Arnold Leisure Centre has 100 efficient employees who are engaged in different sectors of leisure center, the chief executives officer control the employees of ALC. It should mention that the council has five leisure centres and ALC is one of these five centres so its staff allocation is not separate from other centre. Leisure facilities officer controlled the five leisure centre managers for five centres, community centre managers and business strategy officers, which have shown in following diagrams.

Structure of Arnold Leisure Centre

Arnold Leisure Centre has maintained the very high-levels of diversification as most of the business of the ALC is completely unrelated and less than 50% of the sales revenue is generates from dominant-business and there is no connection presents among businesses for example it has no connection in swimming facilities and bar facilities. Now, it should consider the organizational structure of Arnold Leisure Centre and it has followed strategic business unit (M-Form) which has been shown in the following figure. Arnold Leisure Centre should follow this organizational structure because here divisions within each Strategic-Business Unit mainly focus on the transferring core-competencies rather than on sharing assets & actions. Comparing to the other organizational structure it has also five major departments such as corporate R & D Lab, strategic planning, corporate HR, Corporate marketing and Corporate- Finance, however, these are illustrated & controlled by CEO or corporate-headquarters as well as both strategic controls & financial-controls are exercised in order to assess each department. Since ALC is highly differentiated in its own industry, it pursue the following functional structure 

From the above argument, it can be concluded that the structure of ALC is fit with its strategy because still now ALC is not fall in recession; they are successful to manage all business sectors by reducing costs and increase their profit from previous years though it was very low.

Porters five-force & Value-Chain Analysis

The Five Forces Analysis facilitate the vendors to difference a ready for action environment. This analysis has correspondence with further apparatus for environmental audit as well as PEST analysis.

Porter, M. E. (1998) introduced the Value-Chain Analysis answer the attack on his five forces analysis. However, the above figure shows the factors are affecting industry competitors as price is low- buyers bargaining power is poor. Threats of substitute are low as market is saturated and bargaining power with supplier is poor as they can switch towards in another way any time.

The Value Chain Analysis engenders the major capabilities and makes distinction of activities those constrain competitive benefit. Arnold Leisure Centres cost structure should be separated presuming that the cost variation of each behaves differently. In this figure demonstrates the five primary activities and four support activities, which has been considered for Porters strength determination.

Evaluation of Arnold life cycle

External factors turned an industry into an existing form and this form is continuously changed with change of time. Managers have to understand these changes throughout the sequential phase or stages of the industry life cycle as follow-

• Introduction or emergence: In this stage, technology of the ALC is not well developed but it had a large market because people were health conscious.
• Growth: For ALCs life cycle, this is an exciting phase because ALC had to start fighting to survive, gain profitability, market share acquiring and build brand name.
• Shakeout: A large range of change has manipulated here. Factors of shakeout are- industry saturation, evaluate industry growth rate and radical change forced by competitive factors.
• Maturity: In this stage, ALC would breed to consider new factors. Aggregate marketing process determines success of the ALC.
• Decline: A new phase of evaluation is entered termed as decline. It is a great challenge for ALC competes as declining its position for recession.

Key Issues & Recommendation

Arnold Leisure centre handle with various customer services like, hiking, golfing, otherwise smooth easy card games swimming, meeting place for populace as well as learning opportunities with 17 years of successful service track record. In order to become more effective in operation, Arnold Leisure Centre should concentrate on the following issues 

• Employee of Arnold Leisure Centre should more attention to customers wants, team learning and multi-skilled. They should develop the relationship with the young generation to determine the demands of the customer.
• Building up of long-term customer lifetime values or CLV will be helpful to create community relationship.
• Though Arnold Leisure Centre is fully equipped but it should enhance its facilities such as it should change accommodation, arrange place for car parking and it should repair the damage of buildings.
• Motivation of employees is essential to widen new facilities and to remove existing problems,
• Consider consumers demand first and pay attention in market segmentation that should reflect on both income level and age limit.
• ALC can reduce expanses to overcome the global financial crisis and it should not cut the job of their employees.
• The most significant moral corruption can be observed the major payment of the top executives of the billionaire bankrupted firms so ALC should concentrate on issues of ethics and corporate social responsibility.
• It should evaluate and modify the present sports strategy in order to classify the key factors and demands and it will help to organize its strategy.
• It is essential to remove its barriers by developing team learning in ALCs operation,
• The credit crunch and fall down of the US sub-prime money market as well as recession has been seriously injured the UK economy. CNN (2008) has been broadcasted that the finance minister of UK has seriously warned that Britain is now passing the worst financial situation for sixty years, moreover the present crisis will be more profound as well as long-lasting than estimated.

Conclusion

This essay has addressed the critical problems and drawn attention on the companys recent position in recession, its strengths and weaknesses, along with several opportunities and threats. The economical and political factors are not favourable for Arnold Leisure Centre. The specific strategies that are suggested will be applied to achieve its goals and it can be predicted that ALC will be ever successful in strategic management issues with long run customer satisfaction. This paper would draws attention to analyze a number of aspects in environment, organizational structures

What have been the key success factors for Sony?

Sony Corporation is one of the worlds most recognized and respected companies. Since its humble inception as a radio repair shop in 1957, it has now grown into a huge multinational with interests in electronic items, multimedia, music, films and televisions etc. Part of its success comes the vision of its founder (along with Masuru Ikura) Akio Morita who once said that marketing success depends on three types of creativity namely, invention of new products, creativity in product planning and its production and creativity in marketing. This sentiment is echoed in the words of the world famous economist Peter Drucker who said that the basic purpose of any company is to create customers through marketing and innovation. (Trout 2006). It is common knowledge that Sony is highly innovative and examples include the Walkman, PlayStations etc. The company marketing is also highly successful mainly due to the following factors. Apart from advertising and manufacture of quality products, they include market research, customer needs and satisfaction, understanding consumer behavior, and corporate consumer behavior. In fact the market research of the company is extremely strong and effective. Market research involves collecting information through primary and secondary sources. (Market Research Process. 2008, p.3). Market research is used to formulate business plans, develop and launch new products, change or fine tune existing products, understand individual/corporate customers, make sales forecasts, understand market demand and company demand etc. (Market Research Methodology: Overview. 2008). Sony has high capability in understanding consumer behavior also. They have online ads that promote some of their products like Walkman, PlayStations etc. they have even developed a software that will track user behavior when they browse the web. This application called ebridge is so successful that Sony offers its services to organizations and individuals for a fee.