2.6 Maintaining balance Monitoring is also concerned with achieving a balance of the three dimensions of the project: cost – the resources available; time – the schedule; quality – the scope and appropriateness of the outputs or outcomes. Many of the difficulties in implementing a project are caused by poor time management. This will have a direct effect on the costs of the project, as well as on the quality of what is
1.4 Resourcing the project Work will be delayed if the necessary materials and equipment are not readily available, or if the accommodation for the project has not been arranged. Although the project manager is responsible for overall resource allocation and utilisation, much of the work can be delegated. By conferring responsibility to achieve an outcome within the budget, more direct links between costs and outcomes are established. In most projects there will be organisational internal controls and statutory require
2.2.3 The modern period Mass production worked well as long as high volumes of mass-produced goods could be produced and sold in predictable and slowly changing markets. However, during the 1970s, markets became highly fragmented, product life cycles reduced dramatically and consumers had far greater choice than ever before. An unforeseen challenge to Western manufacturers emerged from Japan. New Japanese production techniques, such as total quality management (TQM), just-in-time (JIT) and employee involvement
2.1 Force-field diagrams A force-field diagram shows the opposing pressures (or forces) that are bearing on a situation. Within the context of planning and managing change, the diagram shows the forces which are supportive of change (the driving forces) and the forces which are likely to be unhelpful or resistant (the restraining forces).
Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. Author: Ramy Majouji All other materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University.
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3.1 Background In practice, there is almost always some element of risk (in the technical sense of ‘uncertainty’) in any investment return. There is in finance the theoretical concept of a truly risk-free asset, but at the moment it is sufficient just to be aware of the main factors causing risk or uncertainty in practice. These are: maturity liquidity variability of income default or credit risk
7.7 Planning for quality Having considered estimating for time and for costs, the third dimension of projects – quality needs to be considered. The need to achieve a particular level of quality may mean that more time must be spent completing certain tasks or that more resources must be made available for a particular purpose. Once the time and cost estimates have been made, review them to ensure that this estimate will allow an outcome of the right quality. Many organisations have corporate quality assurance
5.1.1 SMART objectives When the objectives are identified, trying to ensure that each objective is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound) is good practice or at least to have considered the extent to which these conditions could be met. As in all planning, this process is continuous and as new information becomes available and as the project progresses, changes will need to be made to aspects of the objectives and to the sequences of tasks that contribut
3.5 Journals Journals and articles written by academics or experts are an excellent source of information. Journals are usually published monthly or quarterly, and contain a selection of articles providing details of recent research. Often they will also contain reviews of relevant books. They are usually published more quickly than books, and so are often more up to date. To access content of journals, most publishers require a subscription. There are, however, some journals which you can freely ac
2.1 Planning your search Your approach to searching will depend to a great extent on what kind of person you are. In an ideal world, when searching for information for a specific purpose, we would all find what exactly we were looking for at the first attempt, especially if we are in a hurry. However, it’s always a good idea to have some kind of plan when you are searching for information, if only to help you plan your time and make sure you find the information you need. If I was starting to search for material on
Learning outcomes By the end of this guide you should be able to: conduct your own searches efficiently and effectively find references to material in bibliographic databases make efficient use of full text electronic journals services critically evaluate information from a variety of sources understand the importance of organising your own information identify some of the systems available describe how to u
References 1 Characteristics of service provision Choosing a service provider tends to be far more difficult than choosing a supplier of goods. While there may be tangible components in the service an HR consultant offers, what HR consultants provide is largely intangible. As a starting point the following activity asks you to consider the issues likely to be involved in the initial decision to use a consultant. References 5.1 Introduction As we noted earlier, both the rational-economic and psychological perspectives on decision making tend to ignore the social context in which we live and work. We turn now to consider this social context. 2 The changing role of communications Butterfield (1997) argues that the hierarchical model of planning which has traditionally placed communications alongside the other variables of the marketing mix is due for a rethink. This model starts with corporate strategy, which translates into a number of functional strategies (including marketing). It sees marketing communications as a subset of marketing strategy. Butterfield suggests that, because of the increased importance of company-wide brand values in providing competitive advan 2 The ‘business sense’ of an ethical approach Sternberg (1995: 125) argues that treating employees ethically is not an optional extra but an essential ingredient in maximising long-term value: Treating employees ethically simply means treating them with ordinary decency and distributive justice. The ethical business rewards contributions to the business objective, and is honest and fair to its staff; it avoids lying, cheating and stealing, coercion, physical v 4 Environmental factors and organisations: review The primary thrust of this unit has been to emphasise the need for all organisations to acknowledge the influence of their environments and, in turn, the impact of organisations on their context. We have argued that the commercial environment is characterised primarily by the growing trend toward globalisation. To a much greater extent than ever before we live in a global village where goods and services will be produced wherever they can be provided at the least cost. Consumers in the West i 1 Economic function of the entrepreneur Broadly, entrepreneurs have two vital roles to play in the economy (1) to introduce new ideas and (2) to energise business processes. Strictly speaking, the term entrepreneur, which derives from the French words entre (between) and prendre (to take), referred to someone who acted as an intermediary in undertaking to do something. The term was originally used to describe the activities of what today we might call an impresario, a promoter or a deal maker. The entrep
