Corporations today to be successful
must be aware of group dynamics, controversy, creativity, and valuing
diversity. They are essential elements for companies to survive in today’s fast
paced society. (1. Johnson, Johnson 2009). Companies that don’t apply these
principles will not survive this major recession. There is a global
relationship between all of these principles in the world economy. Failure to
acknowledge there importance in today’s society has led to many of the current
problems that corporation has to deal with on a daily basis. Greed, corruption
and the lack of respect for the employees that make the company have let to our
current crisis. In today’s fast paced work of technology news of corporate
events are almost instantaneous.
The internet and technology have
brought instant communications to everyone in the world. The world is a group
environment in which we all live today and exchange products and ideas via the
internet. Our world is incredibly diverse with people from all walks of life
and culture living together. Our social interactions can now be instantaneous;
talking with people on the other side of the planet instantly through such
websites as “Facebook” and “Twitter”. People of all different cultures, beliefs
and religions can exchange any number of ideas in today’s instant communication.
“Companies today have to be innovative and creative to be successful in a
global environment due to intense competition and rapid change.” (International Journal of Management
Practice. Olney: 2009). the internet is a conduit for
this expression of creativity and innovation for today’s corporations.
Less than a hundred years ago,
people had to travel for day or months to communicate with someone half-way
across the world. When someone wants to decide to buy something or make a
decision about some project they are working on in Europe they can instantly
contact their office in Chicago via email or cell phone. No longer to we have
to wait for the mail to get a letter from a relative or business. Our entire
social and business structure today has been enhanced in some ways by this
instant communication and instant information on almost any subject or business
matter.
How we manage and utilize this new
method of information exchange shall help to shape the future of mankind. “This
information accumulation can increase our innovation capability in a global
environment of intense competition and rapid change.”
Today corporations are conducting
research to develop new products. Their engineering group can instantly find
all the specification sheets on the vendor’s website. Engineering groups and
business’s today can more quickly make decisions regarding design
specifications instead of having to wait to receive the specifications in the
mail or information from other divisions by “snail mail”.
The decision making process is fast
paced due to the changes in global business today. We have a diversity of
people with different approaches to dealing with problems or decisions that
have to be made in a group organization. Members of the group have different
ideas for solving problems can have positive and negative results to the
group’s dynamics. When a company is headquartered in the United States and its
manufacturing in China it can be difficult to interface with the supplier due
to the cultural differences and time difference.
“New players
beyond the Chinese, including Japanese and Indian investors, are loosening
their past dependence on resources from the rich world. Few North Americans
understand the new, powerful corporate linkages between China and India, or
even more ominously, between these two giants and Japan, with its superstar
multinationals, huge personal savings, trading firms, and sophisticated
technologies in electronics, pollution controls, health systems, and autos and
transportation. And to these new realities can be added the arrival and
influence in Africa of Arab investors and the sovereign wealth funds.” (Ivey Business Journal Online,
Jul/Aug 2009)
China has developed different
methods of manufacturing that what we are accustomed. There are often debates
between suppliers and the corporate headquarters on how a product is made. It is hopeful the management of both parties
is open-minded to new ways of doing business to adapt to the methods the
country that the product is outsourcing conducts its business. The concept and
final product can create conflict within organizations. When we send drawings
for a design from a company to China sometimes we may get back a product that
is not exactly the way we envisioned. General Motors Corp. has begun
designing interiors in China for Buicks it will sell in the U.S. Alan Taub,
GM's executive director of research and development, said both cost savings and
the desire to cater to the local market drove the effort to shift product
development work to China. (
Wall Street Journal
Feb 7, 2008.
pg. B.1) When engineering jobs are outsourced to other countries you eliminate
any group team effort, diversity, or communications within groups because you
have taken away the checks and balances of intellectual copyright control. The
group dynamics change because you have essentially outsourced the entire
company except for the corporate executives who overseas operations. The
diversity and controversy aspect of American creativity has been given away to
China.
Many times it is due to the language
barrier and translations of instructions are not understood. In recent years
there has been a breakdown in communication between American companies and
their Chinese partners. Products that have contained lead, poisonous children’s
products, poisoned dog food, and other items have made their way into the news.
Decisions must have been made at the corporate level not to have a sampling of
any products for compliance from these overseas vendors. “Foreign
corporations shouldn't be able to export their products to our country
without following our laws too," said AAJ President Anthony Tarricone.
"This bill ensures foreign manufacturers that profit from our marketplace
are also held accountable when their products are defective."” (Lawyers
USA. Boston: Aug 17, 2009)
The management at many of these
manufacturing plants doesn’t comply with our guidelines of safety and
environmental issues that we have in place.
Management at these companies often has a dogmatic philosophy of doing
things they think is best regardless of what they are instructed to do. We lose
control in the manufacturing process due to poor communications and
implementation of contract specifications as part of the communication between
these different groups. (Industry Week.
Cleveland: Sep 2008)
Brainstorming for solutions to these
problems will help find solutions to reduce the delivery of bad products if we
let things continue due to high profits. Long term bad decisions are made at
the corporate level of the autocratic nature by executives who don’t always get
feedback from their managers as to the nature of the problem. “China is
utilizing social responsibility (CSR) principles and practices to the Chinese
stakeholders. Companies usually take one of the following major approaches in
their CSR communications: CSR as ad hoc public philanthropy, CSR as strategic
philanthropy, and CSR as ethical business practices, Chinese
and global companies still present their CSR principles and practices
differently because of their different relations with major Chinese and global
stakeholders. (4.
Public Relations Review, Sep 2009).
Decisions in corporations today have a great
deal to do with making the stockholders happy by higher dividend returns.
Majority votes by stockholders have a great deal of influence on business
decisions and directions a corporation will take. We have outsourced over forty
million manufacturing jobs over the last twenty years. The reduction in
manufacturing costs by having our clothing made in China, Lebanon, Vietnam and
other countries have increased profits in companies to record levels. Minority
control of company’s interests by a few stockholders has alienated many
investors. The ramifications of outsourcing so many manufacturing jobs to
overseas have negative results. We have lost control of the quality of the
product, working conditions for workers in these foreign countries. We can be
more vigilant in monitoring work conditions when these manufacturing companies
are local.
Many companies such as pharmaceutical
companies overseas scramble to give their own employees solid benefits and
added expertise -- often by hiring professors away from academia to provide
classes, offer training and conduct research -- some companies are looking
elsewhere to meet their needs. We are not just sending jobs
overseas, now the United States is sending its knowledge, such as engineering
and manufacturing methodology as well. (McClatchy - Tribune Business News.
Washington: Jan 20, 2008)
There is a long term advantage of
reversing outsourcing back to the United States. We can have better control of
working conditions, salaries of workers and communications between the various
groups of the organizations. There is a reduction in cultural conflicts when
products are not outsourced due to philosophical differences in manufacturing
techniques. We maintain our global advantages by guarding our proprietary
knowledge of how a product or process is made. If we gave China the formula for
Coca-Cola, it wouldn’t take long before they came out with a product that would
take away all of Cokes sales just as the United States gave away the VCR in the
1960’s to Japan.
Today there is a public outcry to
return jobs to Americans. Corporations have a greater group influence on
Congress than the people have in recent years. We are a world community with
different countries making different products all sent to the United States.
There is such a degree of interdependence that when our economy falters it
affects all the interconnectivity groups of corporations that have manufacturing
plants overseas in turn. Managers of foreign companies have difficulty
understanding how we conduct business due to cultural conflict differences.
America has the highest number of
patents and inventions than any other country in the world due to its
diversity, group dynamics, valued diversity, and constitutional freedoms. But,
the overwhelming number of patents is affecting our protection of global
intellectual property.
The
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency safeguarding American innovation,
is impeding the nation's economic recovery with its unprecedented delays and
hurdles in issuing patents, said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. John Schmid, The total number of patent applications
waiting for approval, now over 1.2 million, nearly has tripled from 10 years
earlier.
(Ben
Poston. McClatchy - Tribune Business News.
Washington: Aug 23, 2009.)
A monotheistic society like China
expands and has a very large manufacturing base due to its lack of diversity
and communist government. When you have a culture where everyone working
together for a common goal and like thinking, there is minimal discussion and
debates on projects, they are implemented quickly. China and other countries
can steal our ideas for patents and implement them due to the tremendous
backlog of patent filings and lack of enforcement by the world community. There
is the U.S. Patents and European Patent Organization along with the (WIPO)
world Intellectual Property Organization to deal with trademarks, patents and
intellectual property. Kraig Hill, Toshiko Takenaka and/or
Kevin Takeuchi, CASRIP. Copyrights 2001, http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
Congress is overwhelmed by the current domestic and world situation to
understand the engineering and technological ramifications of protection of
jobs through patents and technology export. Business ethics are fundamental to
the maintenance of social and environmental concerns in business activity. Anonymous. Economics
Week. Atlanta: Sep
11, 2009. pg. 46
The power and influence by the
lobbyists of these corporations have overshadowed what the people desire. We
should have spent those trillions of spending money for small businesses and
small companies to provide jobs to all those currently out of work. The
legitimate power of Congress has been corrupted by buying favors for
corporations. Corrupt and unethical practices of corporations that have
influenced congressional decisions have taken away the group power of the
people. Limiting or removing all contributions by corporations to elected
official will return their representative power to the people. We need to shift
the personal in management to those in the areas that deal directly with the
people. When there are too many tiers in management effectiveness is reduced.
The time for implementation of corporate polices can taken longer and increase
costs to the company, such as Congress. They need to restructure themselves
more like a large corporation to be effective.
I have worked at many companies
where seventy-five percent of the company was management with the remaining
personal actually being productive. We are supposed to be implementing programs
to put Americans back to work with limited results.
Our transportation system is desperate
need for renovation in this country. The train system that was created by South
Pacific over a hundred years ago needs an infusion of funds. Our airports need
money. All of our airplanes are still using aviation fuel with no planes in
development that eliminate pollution into the atmosphere.
Money for the expansion of efficient
electric light rails systems is not on a continuous long term basis. There are
thousands of bridges across the United States that are fifty to a hundred years
old. The conflicts of interest need to be managed in congress to overcome these
political differences. Entropy is the process by which everything eventually
will turn to dust. This fact applies to all of our bridges, roads, buildings
and railway system. Business and labor groups are lobbying congress for a huge
boost in infrastructure spending to create new jobs for the economy. This will
help the hundreds of failing company’s employee people. (Conkey, Brody Mullins. Wall Street Journal
(Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Nov 19, 2008. p. A.4)
There are other countries that have
long term implementation plans to maintain their infrastructure. We are so top
heavy with management degrees we have lost sight of the importance of civil
engineers to design new bridges, roads and railway systems. We have a
perspective gap between those in the sciences and engineering fields and those
in government and the business sector.
We have outsourced most of our
manufacturing to China and other countries because of their lenient environmental
policies and reduced manufacturing cost. There is a lack of group consultation
and group communications with scientists and experts of science. This has
affected the profits of these companies and demanded layoffs by these
companies. Technology consultation of corporations is increasing today due to
executive MBA programs being implemented to teach science and technology
classes to all the CEO’s of the fortune 500 companies. China and other European
nations are implementing changes to insure their future.
China has a $400 billion project that is on
track due to the unilateral thinking by the government to expand their high
speed rail system and employ four hundred thousand people who have been
displaced by the thousands of manufacturing factories that have closed due to
lower demand of goods worldwide. Other European countries and India have been
impacted by this change in economic climate. They are shifting their resources
to other business areas such as energy independence with the expansion of
solar, wide, and geothermal production to reduce their manufacturing cost of
goods.
We have to incorporate into our
society blends of theorems and scientific methodology to problem solving. We have
to add the functional scientific processes into the management structure process.
The authors of books for management degrees are so focused on skills dealing
with subjects for a degree ranging from integration of these scenic principles
into management for organizations, leadership for organization, to
communication in organization, social problems with a scientific understanding.
Organizational change, leadership priorities, and practice need to integrate
various aspects that the scientific community has used for years.
Service
industries comprise roughly 75 percent of the gross domestic product of
developed nations. To design and operate service systems for today and
tomorrow, a new type of engineer must be educated, one who focuses on services
rather than manufacturing. Such an engineer must be able to integrate three
sciences-management, social, and engineering sciences-in the analysis of
service systems. (Armonk: Jan-Mar 2008)
A bridge of knowledge, communications,
and understanding between those in the business world has to be created to
increase the group diversity and acknowledgment of scientific knowledge that physicists,
engineers, doctors, lawyers and psychologists has to offer to society.
Our world is changing so fast with
the introduction of computers and the internet flooding the people of the world
with instant information and knowledge on everything imaginable. There needs to
be self management of this information influx. It should be taught in schools
and with any new computer. Today you buy a computer without a printed
operations manual. Senior citizens have partially embraced the internet and
computers to have access to the online experience.
Many are reluctant to join these
online groups to interrelate with each other. Instant gratification is what
today youth demand is. Leisure time for our youth is more important than
obtaining a comprehensive education. The fast pace of life and need for
acceptance in a youth team environment is one of the most important things to
our youth. They fail to realize due to the lack of parental advice, education
is paramount to success today. Taking concepts of cooperative learning by
students and professionals, and applying this concept to public schools and
family environments will help the next generation of youth.
Groups of individuals in the work
place and everyday life do not realize that all of us go through similar
experiences at different times in life. The lack of effective communication
between parents and their children in today’s society have had dire
consequences. Because so many parents are both working and trying to keep their
homes and jobs that they fail to spend quality time with their children how are
plugged into the internet and with their peers.
Taking lessons learned in management
classes and applying them to how we deal with raising our children must be
carefully considered. The ramifications of how we raised our children fifty
years ago and today have had a major impact on society. Children today in the
United States are not being marketed by our media that school and education is
vitally important for success. Countries such as India, China and Europe
support their educational system financially as opposed to the profit driven
educational system we have commercialized.
How can we create leaders and
managers of tomorrow when only a small percentage of our society who can
utilize the system can benefit by our educational system? There are millions of
people in the United States that are returning to college due to the high
unemployment rate and depression that is now worldwide. When the few have all
the power in a civilization, the society has lost its ability of diversity of
perspectives of possible solutions to world problems. We have delegated our
decisions making to our congressmen and elected officials we have lost our
voice for change.
As we increase literacy, there comes
increased group creativity and group creation of new breakthroughs in science
and technology. As we spend more money in these areas such medicine we will
lower our costs of health care and improve human health and longevity.
Developments in nanotechnology, materials
engineering, and more efficient methods of energy production, solutions to
world hunger and increases in quality of life by lower costs to manufacturing. New
agriculture developments shared with other countries to grow food crops will
lower the cost of feeding the peoples of the world.
In time I believe this will increase the
living standards of everyone. Developments in these areas will produce new jobs
for everyone. We need to establish a sense of moral principles implantation to
affect change in our society. The elimination of war and world conflicts, by
learning our cultural and ethnic differences, cooperative learning, increased
communications between all types of groups in the world and restructured
business plans amongst the world’s corporations will bring in a prosperous and
productive 21st century.
References
1.
Johnson, D. W., and F. P. Johnson.
Joining together: Group theory and group skills (10th Ed.). New York: Pearson.
2009.
4.
Jian Wang, Vidhi
Chaudhri. Public Relations
Review. Greenwich: Sep 2009. Vol. 35, Iss. 3; p. 199
6.
Kimberly Atkins.
Lawyers USA. Boston: Aug 17, 2009.
7.
Jonathan Katz.
Industry Week. Cleveland: Sep 2008. Vol. 257, Iss. 9;
p. 18 (1 page)
8.
Mark Fagan.
McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: Jan 20,
2008
9.
John Schmid, Ben
Poston. McClatchy - Tribune Business News.
Washington: Aug 23, 2009.
10.
Kraig Hill, Toshiko Takenaka and/or
Kevin Takeuchi, CASRIP.Copyrights 2001 by the author and CASRIP, respectfully.
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Norihiko Shirouzu.
Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.:
Feb 7, 2008. p. B.1
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James A Stieb.
Journal of Business Ethics. Dordrecht: Jul 2009. Vol.
87, Iss. 3; p. 401 (14 pages)
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Christopher Conkey,
Brody Mullins. Wall Street Journal
(Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Nov 19, 2008. p. A.4
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Susan Hassler.
IEEE Spectrum. New York: Nov 2008. Vol. 45, Iss. 11; p.
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