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4 models and methodologies offered One of the more visible parts of the service many consultants offer is the model or models on which they base their work. When consulting, activity always needs to be related to the local situation. The consultant will normally start by trying to understand the client perspective, but then seek to expand that perspective, using theory and experience from elsewhere. So you will probably need information on the theoretical models used by any consultants you are considering. In addition to
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. Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to studying Business & Management. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 2.3 Capital markets In so far as better corporate governance has the objective of enhancing shareholder control, it should follow that companies with better corporate governance will attract investors and will reduce their cost of capital. A global investor opinion survey carried out by McKinsey & Company (2002) gives some evidence that good governance is linked to investment decisions. The survey found that: investors state that they still put corporate governance on a p 2.2 Recent governance failures As we have discussed before, the creation of corporate regulation is often linked to perceived failures of corporations and their management to behave in the way society expect them to. Corporate governance is not an exception to this trend, and, as with accounting, different countries may well experience difficulties at different times. For example, the development of British codes of best practice, which began with the Cadbury Committee, can be related to governance scandals such as Polly P 1.2 Conclusion The annual financial reports commonly contain a statement on corporate governance, so it is useful to have an awareness of what this involves. This has important implications for interpreting the financial statements: a company with a weak system of corporate governance will provide greater opportunities for the manipulation of financial statements, with adverse consequences for users. 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 4.0 Licence Course image: eri References Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to studying Business & Management. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 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 1.2 The relationship between stakeholders and the organisation Public and voluntary sector organisations do not have the same shareholder obligations as those in the private sector. However, as the distinction between public and private sector organisations becomes blurred, there are concerns that the ethical role of public service organisations – defined as acting in the public interest through a public service ethos – is being undermined. As public service and non-profit organisations are increasingly expected to achieve targets and become more ‘ 1.1 The concept of 'social capital' Fukuyama (1995) examines the importance of civil society defined through institutions including businesses, churches, universities, and schools and uses the concept of ‘social capital’ to describe how people work together for common purposes in organisations. Fukuyama argues that shared values lead to trust, which is crucial for society and the economy to function. He quotes from the distinguished economist Kenneth Arrow with approval: References Learning outcomes After studying this course, you should be able to: explain the relationship between strategy and the ethical dimension of organisational purposes. 3.1 Codes of conduct One of the principles of the European Union Emissions Trading System discussed by Schultz and Williamson (2005) is that an organisation accepts responsibility for the performance of their suppliers. In an age where multinational corporations are able to reduce the production costs of their goods and services by offshoring it to whoever can meet the specification at the lowest cost, what responsibility do they have for the conditions under which production actually occurs? One of the fir 1.2 Offshoring The premise is straightforward. Given modern telecommunications capability, it matters little where telephone support is based. India, with a large population of English-speaking graduates and low (by Western standards) wage rates is an obvious choice. The significant cost-savings look very attractive to many organisations. References Keep on learning   There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to 4.2 Personal self-evaluation You could also carry out a personal self-evaluation, to contribute to your own development as a project manager. You can develop a list of questions to evaluate your own performance: Were the project objectives achieved? Did the project stay within budget? How were problems that occurred during the project been resolved? What could you have done differently to improve the final result? What do
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