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
3.2 Search engines and subject gateways Although both search engines and subject gateways will help you find the resources that you need, the types of information that you find will differ. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! search the internet for keywords or phrases, and then show you the results. These results are not mediated by the search engines, and therefore you need to use your own judgement on the reliability of the results. You may, for example, find websites written by experts, alongside websites written by
3.1 Introduction You can find a lot of information about the business and management on the internet. To find this information you might choose to use: search engines and subject gateways books and electronic books databases journals encyclopedias news sources internet resources.
2.2.1 Checklist of common features Is there any online help? Can I do a simple search? Can I look at the information in both short and detailed form? Can I choose where in the record I want my search terms to be found? Can I search for phrases? Can I combine search terms? Can I use truncation? Can I use wildcards? Can I do an advanced search? Can I get a list
2.1.1 Choosing keywords Keywords are significant words which define the subject you are looking for. The importance of keywords is illustrated by the fact that there is a whole industry around providing advice to companies on how to select keywords for their websites that are likely to make it to the top of results lists generated by search engines. We often choose keywords as part of an iterative process; usually if we don't hit on the right search terms straight off, most of us tweak them as we go along based on t
1.6 Keeping up-to-date How familiar are you with the following different ways of keeping up to date with information; alerts, mailing lists, newsgroups, blogs, RSS, professional bodies and societies? 5 – Very familiar 4 – Familiar 3 – Fairly familiar 2 – Not very familiar 1 – Not familiar at all
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:
1.3 ‘Going public’ For many companies a point may be reached, particularly if the company has grown significantly in size and has aspirations for further expansion, to seek equity finance through an initial public offering of shares (IPO). In a recent Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to: understand private equity and the role of venture capital companies in providing this; understand why and how public equity issues can be undertaken; look at the reasons for cross-listing on stock exchanges; examine why a company might de-list from an exchange and return to private ownership. 7.5 Becoming an institutional entrepreneur While acting in ways that are seen to be legitimate is important for both individuals and organisations, social institutions are not immutable. Some people and organisations seem to have a talent for changing the rules of the game. Some writers have referred to this as being an institutional entrepreneur. At the organisational level examples might include organisations such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems working actively to establish industry standards which favour them. At the 6.5 The social construction of quantifiable risk Earlier in this unit we referred to the way in which social groups can develop shared cognitive schema. One important role for shared cognitive schema is to define the risks that we pay attention to, the dread in which we hold them and the perceived likelihood of their occurrence. Because these perceptions affect behaviour, they also play a role in selecting the risks that we face. In the last half century, some sociologists suggest (e.g. Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990) that our concerns with risk Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit: 2.2 Regulatory initiatives ‘We know the solution: sustainable development. The issue is political will.’ Prime Minister Tony Blair, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2 September 2002 Introduction ‘Environment’ is one of the more popular words in the management lexicon, most generally understood to be referring to ‘something outside’. But common usage today often interprets the Environment (with or without the capital ‘E’) as referring to the planetary ecosystem. On that basis the Environment includes such things as global warming, the state of the ozone layer, deforestation and the means of energy generation. Organisations need to coexist with their environment, responding 4 Key points The important points this unit has covered include: Defining the entrepreneur in terms of economic function and role. Identifying the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms. Considering the role of entrepreneurial motivation in decision making and business behaviour. Identifying leadership and management styles appropriate to an entrepreneurial firm 3.8 Following up the report The evaluation report will often contain recommendations for further actions and these may lead to new project ideas. Recommendations may relate to processes and procedures within the organisation. Project evaluation and debriefing can be a learning experience for the organisation as a whole, as well as for individuals. For example, British Petroleum gathers the lessons learnt from post-project appraisals in a series of booklets that are then used as guidance for writing project proposals. In 3.2 Evaluation during the planning stage Evaluation at this stage is usually concerned with whether plans represent good value for money. It may be appropriate to evaluate inputs to the project, to ensure that their quality and quantities are sufficient to achieve the objectives. In large building projects, many specialist tasks are subcontracted. Specifications are developed, and potential contractors are invited to tender for work. The element of competition can lead to problems if some tenderers are over-anxious to win contracts. 1.1 Formal handover The outputs of a project should be defined at the planning stage, including any conditions that will be required for a smooth transfer. Each outcome should be formally handed over to the sponsor who should confirm their delivery (‘sign them off’) so that there is no dispute about whether outcomes have been completed. A closure list is likely to have sections to include the following groups of tasks, but each project will have different features to consider. A list of suggested areas 6.1 Introduction Buchanan and Badham (1999) suggest that political behaviour can be usefully evaluated against four criteria to help determine whether it is acceptable or whether it is not: Is the behaviour e 3 Identifying and involving stakeholders in a project For every project, there will be a range of individuals or groups who have an interest in the different stages of the project. It could be the end users of an IT system, the line managers who will be expected to lead a restructuring initiative throughout the organisation, or the marketing department which will promote a new product. The support of these stakeholders is essential, if the project is to succeed. Therefore a key responsibility of the project manager will be to identify these stak
SAQ 4
Box 2 Political will
Four criteria to determine whether political behaviour is acceptable
