Chapter 9. Organizational Agility
9.b Consider what is a core competence, and it’s four elements. If you were going into business for yourself, what would be your core competencies? Describe them in terms of the four elements of a core competence.
Core competency is defined as proficiency that enables a business to deliver significant value to clients. It is the way that a business integrates the technology to its diverse skills and knowledge. Core competency consists of four essential elements that can be different in various industries. However it is mainly in four areas of; knowledge, specific business practices, technical knowledge and skills, and the communication and interpersonal skills.
Based on people interest, the core competencies can be integrated to the objective of the business. If I suppose that I want to start an education career consultancy, I need to focus on the following areas as my core competencies and try to develop it within the culture of the country that I belong to. National firms can be very different for international firms due to cultural differences. I would like to summarize the mentioned business core competencies to the following areas:
- Career advising knowledge
It is very important to get the client to understand the strategies and environment of the workplace. The basic and ground information about different jobs can make a difference in client choice. This must be a core value and it needs to be communicated to all those who work there and clients who seek help. Legal issues and ethical standards must be considered.
- Business practices for specific jobs
In this business, the knowledge of various careers must be given to clients, and the kind of demonstration and offering resources for further research is necessary. This must include the financial benefits, opportunities and threats of the specific jobs so that the future can be clearer for the client and they will be able to make the right decision.
- Skills and technical knowledge
Different technologies in various organizations and industries should be introduced and relevant websites and tools should introduced, to the clients. In this case, they can test their technical knowledge in various fields and test their abilities and talents in those areas.
- Interpersonal skills and communication
It is essential for clients to understand that a strong network, relationship, continual support and effective communication are the keys to success, and they should implement every element to be able to have a successful career.
Chapter 16. Managerial Control
16.b Discuss three specific pros and cons of bureaucratic controls such as rules, procedures, and supervision?
Bureaucratic controls are defined to evaluate and check the performance progress and it seems to be a necessary part of each organization to ensure the corrective performance and achieve organizational goals. Control and auditing system to follow procedures can ensure the proper implementation of rules, procedures and supervision and identify the non-compliance actions for proper correction act. Bureaucratic control consists of a set of procedures, rules and supervisions. They help to regulate and ease of various departments, and individuals. They also help an employee to know what is expected of him and get away role confusion. Employees will be equipped with knowledge to perform their activities effectively by going through procedures and it also sets and standard for supervisors to identify deficiencies and come front of it. It is managers’ responsibility to provide this bureaucratic information for employees to follow and they must to follow the proper implementation.
It is also much easier to justify the employees performance hen there are a sets of rules and procedures in place.
In spite of the advantages that bureaucratic controls offer, it also have its disadvantages or difficulties. Some of them can be as follow:
- It is easy to establish a rule. However it is more difficult to discard them. When the number of rules and procedures increase, the organization can jeopardize its survival as it will not easy to follow all of them and employees try to find a way to by-pass them.
- Rules and standards can help the employees to form their behavior. However, sometimes the employees get use to following them in a way that they forget themselves and innovation due to extensive bureaucratic control.
- Bureaucratic controls help more when the organization is mostly following a routine and has less changes and flexibility when a project is going on. While with a flexible project that has a lot of risk and unexpected demands, it will not be easy and sometimes will be even more difficult to follow the rules, procedures and standards.
