Questions - Negotiation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Questions - Negotiation - Essay Example Similarly, any of the Kilmann’s models may be suitable depending on the characteristic of the condition and the negotiators personalities. Discussion 1. Identify and describe the 5 conflict handling modes as set forth in the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Mode Instrument Kilmann’s approaches of dispute resolution entails the following. Avoidance The avoiding management of conflict approach is low on cooperativeness and aggressiveness. This means that the manager is not highly cooperative in assisting the other parties to attain their objectives; neither is he assertively pursuing his suitable results in the case. Avoidance model of conflict management is often counterproductive, always resulting to depression and further problems. The people who persistently avoid conflicts trigger feelings of aggressiveness, anger and vengeance within themselves, triggering increased anxiety. In this approach, initial challenge, conflict, or condition is not directly attended or resolved. In a ddition, avoiding attitude may be suitable when the matter is perceived as being trivial. It is also a suitable approach to employ when there is a higher chance of winning the case or when distraction would be highly expensive. Competition Competing conflict management model is also described as the win-lose strategy and is characterized by increased assertiveness and reduced cooperativeness. The manager aims to achieve her own appropriate benefits at the advantage of his opponents. This model may be suitable when immediate decisive actions are required, such as in cases of emergencies. The approach can also be appropriate to confront unusual actions like urgent cost reduction. Accommodation style This approach reflects an increased degree of unity, and it has been considered obliging. Negotiator using this approach subjugate his goals anticipated results and objectives to enable other parties to attain their objectives and results. This approach is most suitable when parties unders tand that they did a mistake or when the matter is highly crucial to one party than another. This conflict management approach is vital for safeguarding future relationships amidst the parties. Compromising Compromising conflict management approach is characterized by relative degree of both cooperativeness and aggressiveness. Compromise, also known as bargaining, produces moderate output. This behavior may be employed when the objectives of the two sides are of similar significance, when the two parties have equal authority, or when it is vital to look for a semi permanent, timely remedy. The approach should not be utilized in case of a complicated challenge demanding a conflict solving style. Collaboration Collaborative conflict management style is intensive on both aggressiveness and cooperativeness. It is also considered the win-win mechanism. Both parties innovatively strive towards attaining the anticipated results and goals of all the individuals involved. The approach is sui table when the matter is complex, and an innovative or novel comprehension of ideas is required. The limitation of this style is that the collaborating process mandates genuine efforts by all the individuals involved, and it might need extra time to reach an agreement. The above five Kilmann’

Conflict Resolution In Civil Engineering Construction Industry

Conflict Resolution In Civil Engineering Construction Industry Introduction Conflict exists in society generally, includes in family, work and so on. It is important and necessary to resolve all kinds of conflicts efficiently and successfully. Inevitably, conflict is also a reality in the civil engineering construction industry. It influences the operation of projects, increases the cost of projects, wastes various resources, delays the duration of engineering, decreases staff motivation. Conflict has become a serious problem in the civil engineering construction industry (Davies, 1998). Conflict resolution becomes more and more useful and crucial. There are four objectives in the report: define the concepts of conflict and construction industry, expound the significance of conflict resolution, investigate the reasons of causing conflicts and recommend some methods to resolve conflicts. Methodology In the report, there are four main objectives. There are three main steps to accomplish the objectives. The inductive approach is used in the report. Firstly, finding out the key words of the report topic, it is necessary to read some books, journals, periodicals and articles from library and websites. People could understand the concept of conflict, the significance of conflict resolution, reason of causing conflicts and how to resolve conflicts. Secondly, according to the knowledge, author could define concepts, understand different opinions from different writers and analyze the different opinions. Thirdly, after studying and pondering, author expounds her own ideas of the four objectives. Literature review The definition of conflict is that the process of cooperation is incompatible and unfavorable (Rahim, 1992). It is universal and exists with incompatible cooperation (Davies, 1998). Conflict exists in all more than one personal work environment. It is people used to considering their own interest rather than others (Humphrey, 2008). Hellard (1992) thought that conflict is not only caused by a train of events. Peoples emotions could involve in the events and influence the causing of conflicts inevitably. The civil engineering construction industry needs many professional people to involve in, such as Architects, Structure Designers, Constructors, Building and Quantity Surveyors and so on. There are some kinds of conflicts in building industry, Zikmann (1992, p55) said that these include â€Å"interest conflicts, structural conflicts, value conflicts, relationship conflicts and data conflicts†. Conflicts occur commonly between main contractors and the sub-contractors (Harding, 1991; as quoted in Langford, 1992). Not only have that, but conflict also occurred between contractors and clients, or contractors and clients architects. Some elements, such as project types and sizes, procurement systems and government policy, could influence the conflict aspects (Lavers, 1992). Effectively managed conflicts are necessary. It requires that the construction managers have enough abilities to resolve conflicts. The reason of causing conflicts is various. The majority of conflicts are developed because these are not responded correctly and timely. On the contrary, poor managed conflicts could deteriorate the issues (Zikmann, 1992). There are some reasons of causing conflicts in construction industry. Some are because the construction plan is not clear. It confuses both client and contractor. Some are because over-scope of task between contractor and his subcontractors. The contractor requires subcontractors to do extra work. Some are because time is not enough to complete the project. Others are because the client asks for extra work but refuse to pay more money and extend the time of completion (Klinger, 2009). Contingency is another reason of causing conflicts. In construction industry, the roles of every part could change. It means that in the new environment, there are some barriers to influence relationship balance (Langford, 1992). It is a key ability for managers to manage the complicated relationship networks of project which is limited time and budget (Zikmann, 1992). Dispute avoidance is useful in construction management. Conflicts are often caused by wrong consideration, inadequate preparatory and plan or poor project procedures and budget. The popular ways to avoid conflicts are early negotiation, risk audits and training (Brewer, 2007). The best way to resolve conflicts is prevention. It requires project managers to acquaint the objectives of client, make reasonable project plan and have the ability of prediction. People can pinpoint the reason of causing conflicts before happening, but it is difficult to predict when the conflict will occur. Therefore, the certainty of predicting conflicts at the beginning and end is less than in a construction project (Cree, 1992). Not only prediction, but also communication could help to resolve conflicts. Poor communication could cause misunderstanding (Mackie, 1992). Follett(1940, as quoted in Rahim, 1992) said that there are some mains to resolve conflicts, such as domination, compromise, consolidation, avoidance and suppression. Fenn (1992) said that the new method to resolve conflicts is alternatives of litigation and arbitration. KuTenk (2000) classified the strategy of conflict resolution into three parts, avoidance, diffusion and antagonism. It is the method to resolve general conflicts and problems. It lacks of pertinence for construction industry. For construction industry, managers need the ability to negotiate to resolve conflicts (Jambro and Siddiqi, 2008). Negotiation is the most common method to resolve conflicts. It is more flexible, economic and efficient than other methods (Dieterle and Ramirez, 2001). Mediation could assist negotiation. Parties select a mediator to help them resolve the conflicts. Mediators could assist all parties to resolve but they have no right to compel any party to agree (Goodman, 2006). Arbitration was the favored method to resolve conflicts in 1980s and 1990s. It is efficient and economical. Litigation is resolution of conflicts in the court. It is a long and expensive process (Klinger, 2009). Dispute review board (DRB) is build before starting of construction. Mostly, it is composed by three construction professionals who have abundant experience. It is highly effective and could reduce the cost of dispute resolution. Over 70% people thought DRB is better than arbitration about resolution result (Harmon, 2003-2004). The conflict resolution in England and Wales has some methods. It is divided into two parts: non-binding and binding. In non-binding, there are conciliation, executive tribunal and mediation. In binding, there are adjudication, arbitration, expert determination, litigation and so on (Davies, 1998). Discussion Conflict is a kind of phenomenon which exists in everywhere commonly in the society. Every person has their own ideas, standpoint and interest, it is impossible to unify all ideas of all people. Therefore, the existing of conflicts is automatic consequence. Especially in civil engineering construction industry, there are so many people, roles and tasks, complicated relationship and interested parties. The conflict usually occurs between client or designer and contractor, contractor and subcontractors, contractor and workers or worker and worker. Any relationship is very important and could become the key point to influence the whole project. Good conflict resolution could bring high efficiency and more profit. Bad conflict resolution hinders the smooth process of construction project. The reasons of causing conflict are very various and complicated. These could be summarized into four types: time, money, task allocation and contingency. Time means that the project could not be completed on time. In consequence of the changes of design, unreasonable plan in construction stage, works programme are delayed. The kind of conflict often occurs between client or designer and contactor. The conflict is caused by money includes contractor does not gain money from client, contractor refuses to pay wages to workers, poor financial budget, material price fluctuation. Task allocation reason means that the project plan is poor, the assignment allocation is ambiguous, task allocation is unfair, harsh work environment and so on. Contingency is an uncertain element but exists generally and inevitable. It could be occurred in every aspect. Contingency usually can not be dealt with in time because of indeterminacy. Conflict likes a barrier for construction industry. Conflict resolution becomes more and more important. Domination and suppression are unacceptable methods. These methods could cause more serious conflicts. Four steps method could be used to resolve problems about conflicts when people manage a construction project. First step is to prevent. Prevention could resolve conflict before occurring. Good conflict prevention needs excellent managers who have enough abilities to make project time and cost plan sensibly, manage all kinds of relationships well and arrange tasks reasonably. Everyone take his due responsibility and obligation. It is the best way of resolving conflict to minimize the probability of causing conflicts. Second step is to establish a group which includes some experts who have extensive experience. These experts could make use of their experience to resolve a lot of contingencies as soon as possible and avoid the conflicts are deteriorated by their experience. Not only that, they also can give some good advice to resolve conflicts in other steps. Third step is to negotiate. Negotiation is an effective and economical method to resolve conflict. Conflict is the problem of two or more parties rather than only one party. So it is important to have good communication and good relationship between every party. Negotiation is a good way to communicate with every party. People could get the main reason of causing conflict and discuss the best way which every party can accept to resolve conflicts. Conflict could be resolved as soon as possible and avoid be deteriorated. Mediation is another way to negotiate between parties. It needs a mediator who selected by every party to help them to resolve conflicts. Negotiation could resolve conflict without breaking relationships. It is a double win method to resolve conflict between parties. Fourth step is arbitration or litigation. These are the resolution process in court. The differences are litigation needs discovery or jury and allows appealing. The process of arbitration or litigation is very long and takes a lot of money. It means that people spend long time and increase the cost of project but conflict is not always be resolved well. Do not use the step if conflict could be resolve by the first three steps. Conclusion Conflict is occurred between different people or interest parties. In civil engineering construction industry, client, contractor, subcontractor and worker are four main component parts. Conflict likes a barrier to baffle the entire project. It is important to deal with and resolve conflict. There are four main reasons of causing conflict, time, money, task allocation and contingency. Good managers and reasonable approaches are necessary for conflict resolution. Prevention, expert group, negotiation and arbitration are four steps to resolve conflicts. These could assist to resolve conflict as soon as possible and minimize loss in civil engineering construction industry. Reference BREWER, G, 2007. Dispute avoidance. Contract Journal, 437(6611), 22. CREE, C A, 1992. Managing disputes. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 47-53. DAVIES, E et al (Eds), 1998. Dispute resolution and conflict management in construction. London: EFN SPON. DIETERLE, R A and RAMIREZ. A M, 2001. Using the project neutral process to resolve contentious disputes. AACE International Transactions, ABI/INFORM Global, CD51- CD56. FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds), 1992. Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON. GOODMAN, A H, 2006. Resolving differences. Kitchen Bath Business, 53(7), 46-47. HARMON, K M J, 2003-2004. Construction conflicts and dispute review boards: Attitudes and opinions of construction industry members. Dispute Resolution Journal, 58(4), 66-75. HELLARD, R B, 1992. Construction conflict- management and resolution. In FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 35-46. HUMPHREY, B, 2008. 10 steps toward resolving conflict on the jobsite. Concrete Contractor, 8(5), 78-79. JAMBRO, J D and SIDDIQI, K M, 2008, Conflict resolution and negotiation skills in undergraduate construction management curriculum, online, retrieved 19 October 2009, from http://ascpro0.ascweb.org/archives/cd/2008/paper/CEUE210002008.pdf. KLINGER, M, 2009. Confronting construction conflicts. EC M, 108(3), 14. KUTENK, 2000, Conflict management and resolution- developing successful conflicts- resolution strategies at home or at work. Bussiness management resources, online, retrieved 19 October 2009, from http://kutenk2000.blogspot.com/2008/12/conflict- management-and-resolution.html. LANGFORD, D A. et al, 1992. Contingency management of conflict: analysis of contract interfaces. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 64-71. LAVERS, A, 1992. Construction conflict: management and resolution analysis and solutions. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 3-20. MACKIE, K J, 1992. Alternative dispute resolution and construction disputes. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 302-305. RAHIM, M A, 1992. Managing conflict in organizations. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 369-377. ZIKMANN, R V, 1992. Successful conflict management. In: FENN, P and GAMESON, R (Eds). Construction conflict management and resolution. London: EFN SPON, 54-58.

Savagery, Power and Fear :: miscellaneous

Savagery, Power and Fear MLA Research Paper Savagery, Power And Fear And how it’s ties in with Lord Of The Flies Young children who are left unattended will slowly loose their civilization, which will turn into, Savagery, Power, and Fear. Civilization is when man meets his basic needs in a healthy manner. Savagery is when people revert back to their lost human instincts. Power, in the case of Lord Of the Flies it’s a position of ascendancy over others: AUTHORITY. Fear is an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by expectation or awareness of danger. Lord of the Flies shows a great amount of uncivilization through out the whole novel. Through all the characters for example when the boys create the Lord of The flies, which is â€Å"the bloody, severed sow’s head that Jack impales on a stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated symbol is most important image in the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some â€Å"fun† with him (This â€Å"fun† foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter.) In this way, the Lord of the Flies becomes a physical manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the power of evil, and a kind of Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being. Looking at the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the name â€Å" Lord of the Flies† is a literal translation of the bible name Beelzebub, a powerful demon in hell s ometimes thought to be the devil himself.† (Spark notes) This is very uncivilized. Savagery is most often found when young children or any human if put in the same position lose the instincts of human ways. This is portrayed through the book Lord Of The Flies. The beast is one way this is shown. â€Å" The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys’ behavior is what brings the beast into existences, so the more savagely they act, the more real the beast seems to become.

Best Friend vs Dog

Koski 1 Terry Koski Instructor: Melissa Wilke English Comp. 1 March 26, 2013 Best Friend vs Dogs Believe it or not, Friends and dogs have many similarities. They both make great companions and we here, they both play an important role in our life. The real subject I would like to point out is who's actually a better friend? I believe man's best friends are more true than their human counterpart because you can trust them.Try to question yourself, who's the one who will always be there when your in trouble,sad or sick? I'm not trying to say that all friends aren't as loyal as our pet, but it's arduous to find a friend that's as dedicated to only you no matter what. If you ever do have a friend that's as loyal, appreciate that person and treasure it because it's as rare as getting hit by lightning. Who is your best friend? My opinion, the answer is: a person that reflects yourself while looking in the mirror.Having a best friend is the best feeling in the world, it's like they are a pa rt of you in a way that's truly hard to explain until you find it. A best friend is someone you spend the majority of your time with because they have the most common with you. They will attend all the activities you both share the love for. Your dog won't be able to compete with that the majority of the time, but when you get home they will be waiting for you with the tail wagging acting like he or she hasn't seen you in years.Koski 2 I would like to look at the advantages of Man's best friend, No arguments or drama, there is never a hidden agenda in being your friend. It's pure Loyalty and Love for you as who you are, not what you have or what you can give materially. All the dog want's is a little attention and most of all love. Everything is so pure with them, there is absolutely no stress involved, which in this day and age is a rarity. There is no competition, no acting like your somebody your not to please anyone, they simply don't care.You can be who and what you are all the time. It doesn't matter if your wearing off brand clothes, your hair isn't done or you only have a penny to your name, the love is always there. There is never a awkward moment either, you can play with them for awhile and when your done, they are. It's a simple living with Man's Best Friend, although there is no verbal interaction from their side it's as if they are talking to you by the look on their face and their tail wagging.I guess this is the time to hit on the advantages of having a Best Friend, this is tough for me because all to often a friend has let me down. The great thing about having a best friend is human interaction, watching and going to a sporting events together, going on trips and creating memories that will last a life time. Asking for advice during tough times and giving it as well. Friends are self efficient, you don't have to feed them or care for them, they don't rely on you 100% for their well being

RR communications

Due to the division among departments, the company has been unable o meet reporting requirements for the Serbians Solely Act. It has proved obvious that a shared IT service, which is standardized among all the units, is needed to ensure everything goes well. The first problem we see at OR Communications is that there is a definite lack of centralized and concise IT governance. Currently all of the separate functions of the company have their own individual leadership with no central leadership. For this reason, each of the sections takes actions and makes decisions based only on how it affects their own particular departments.There Is no ordination to ensure that the act of one area does not negatively affect the rest of the firm. This In turn has led to a gallants lack of uniformity across the organization, which Is hurting customer relations. There are unified databases and each section maintains their own set of records; this is causing great frustration among their customers who continually have issues when dealing with more than one area. Much of the division of departments has been caused by a lack of central leadership.The CEO of the firm has failed to unify the department or assert any intro over the individual IT vice presidents. Even though they reported to him, each had acted entirely independently. This continuous failure of leadership has caused the department heads to develop a sense of isolation and self-survival. Even though a new executive UP of IT has been appointed to bring unity to the firm, there has been severe resistance as each department feels It will suffer. The lack of centralized management for so long has caused significant discord between the departments that will take considerable effort to overcome.In Dalton, this company attitude has altered down from the VSP to the middle and lower management creating an overall atmosphere that is dangerously disjointed. Even the suggestion of bringing together the database systems and manageme nt has caused a near mutinous uprising and rejection of leadership. The current managerial atmosphere has been around so long, the attitude of individualism has been deeply embedded in the corporate culture. While, individual thinking is useful to foster innovation and creativity, when the entire organization acts to satisfy only its individual requirements, the firm overall will suffer.Unless this attitude can be overcome, any attempt at bringing unity to the company will fall. From the technical standpoint, OR Communications is suffering from a severely fractured information management system. Every section of the company manuals Its own Individual customer databases, which are In Incompatible formats. If a customer manuals relationships with more then one division, they get bills from each individual area. Customer issues often fail to get causing problems with diminished customer satisfaction. In addition, without a centralized database, full customer information and statistics are impractical to elect.In addition to suffering by not being able to collect detailed records, the company is facing regulatory issues by not being able to provide complete information on the company's activities, and significant resources are being wasted to assemble simple reports. Currently management and associates at OR Communications believe that a collective solution is impossible, and any attempt to do so will cause them to suffer. While it may be true that the initial implementation of such a system will require a significant collective effort, the end result will be well worth it.It is also clear that much of the perspective of management is extremely short sided; projects are selected only based on a very narrow and limited benefit view with no regard for their long-term viability. As more and more systems have been patched together to fulfill immediate gaps, the overall collection of programs has become a cumbersome, inefficient, and unmanageable mess. A truly efficien t system would be one that is all-encompassing and communicates across all facets of the organization to deliver a unified and fully integrated information system that can add real value to the firm.One other major issue at OR Communications is the proliferation of rouge projects completed without oversight or regard for how they will affect the firm. In a large company every project should be examined to determine how it could provide value to the organization before being launched. At OR Communication projects are being launched that benefit only select areas and may in fact be causing a significant negative impact to the rest of the firm. The company currently does not have a steering or operating committee to oversee and exert control over these projects.Without any form of centralized control and provenance, these rouge projects will continue to sabotage the effectiveness of the organization. Lack of common information and enterprise IT strategy has caused several problems for the business and the IT departments of OR communications. Customer service has suffered and customer dissatisfaction has grown. Lack of common information has made it difficult for management to monitor the businesses as a whole. Business units are unable to exchange information and remain unaware of the other divisions' work.There is little sense of how the divisions work together to meet the company's overall goals. The accounting problems make it difficult to present shareholders with accurate financial information, and the system is not cost-effective in any case. Furthermore, each division working at individual level to attain its success makes them rigid and unable to adapt to changing requirements; under these circumstances even the implementation of new technology will be extremely difficult. The organization cannot operate efficiently as a whole or at division levels, and the costs are bound to keep increasing.Analysis: As many annoyed customers can probably agree, being tr ansferred from one apartment of the company to another over and over again to resolve a simple issue is one of the main reasons many companies lose customers. This is certainly an issue at OR Communications. The main cause of the problem seems to be the division of system that rewards individual performance over company profit. The fact that the four CICS refuse to work together and resort to sabotaging the efforts of the others, serves to show that they are more interested in their own selfish financial goals.While the president of the company may have been a visionary and brilliant entrepreneur, he lacked the managerial skills to recognize the need to have a unified commission system which would foster participation in a common goal, and thus a common commission which is interdependent on all four business units would be most beneficial to the company. Unifying IT Resources The most important problem for OR Communications to correct is a significant deficiency of successful inform ation management, reflected by the confused state of their customer information databases.Currently customer data is disbursed in separate databases for each section of the company, so that data from one apartment is not available to another. Thus, customers are forced to maintain relationships with multiple departments and receive billing from each. This separation means that valuable information resources are not being effectively utilized, hurting the firm's productivity and efficiency. To improve the state of information capital at OR Communications, a complete overhaul of the current systems will be necessary, from both an IT and business standpoint. Information represents a vital asset to any company.This can be in the form of customer accounts, sales records, research & development, financial statements, etc. However, in order to realize full benefits, the same information must be readily accessible by all individual units, so that the company can leverage it in the most effi cient manner. The first step to correct the issues at OR Communications is to create a unified data architecture that combines all information resources into a central database that is accessible to all sections of the firm. By providing a centralized database clients will be better served by allowing complete access to customer records throughout the company.This will also improve reporting abilities, lower administrative costs, and rattle increase the value of information resources. To achieve the greatest benefit to the company, OR Communications could consolidate its data from multiple silos into a unified enterprise data warehouse (DEW) (Smalls, 2011). This architecture provides multiple benefits including a single location for all information storage reducing the amount of duplicated efforts. This also greatly improves the integrity of data by providing a ‘single version of the truth' (Smalls, 2011).When data is spread throughout multiple databases, invariable some of it will differ. For example, a customer's address may have been changed in one department but not another. These differences can prove costly to a company. A centralized DEW means that only one record should exist for each customer and reduce data discrepancies. Having such a centralized system would also satisfy customer needs in a more efficient manner and would help to cross-sell products, which in turn would result in higher profits and more profit for the company.By allowing customers to have a single point of contact, and sharing information by standardizing software and databases across he organization, information will flow more freely and readily available thus giving the employees the ability to communicate in real time with accurate data and maximizing customer contact to increase profits. Having a decentralized IT function is business units separated, it keeps pertinent information out of reach of other business units, and thus allows missed opportunities to maximize profi t.Also, the lack of communication among the units creates chaos and disorientation in the organization and gives precedence to individual goals above company goals, which in urn will end up hurting the overall enterprise vision and may even spell the end of the enterprise altogether. Finally, having a decentralized IT function creates customer frustration such as in the case of getting several bills for different products. This frustration may cause the company lost customers and lost profits.Information Stewardship & Information Management Policy The difficulty in implementing this solution is the current state of the databases scattered about the firm; many are in incompatible formats, so that significant effort will need to be invested to bring together all of this data into a single, shared IT arrive system accessible to all. In addition, not all data is equally valuable to each unit. Efficiency necessitates allowing employees access to the information that is most pertinent wit hout inundating the various departments with extraneous details.For this reason, whatever IT solution is implemented must be able to adapt dynamically to the storage and retrieval needs of each department. Another challenge to creating a centralized system is the role of information stewardship. Information stewardship involves the ownership and control of information to reduce discrepancies and redundancies. To maintain the consistency and accuracy of data, information stewards need to be appointed. â€Å"Information stewards are businesspeople. They should be responsible for determining the meaning of information ‘chunks' and their business rules and contextual use.They should be responsible for the accuracy, timeliness, consistency, validity, completeness, and redundancy of information† (Mencken & Smith, 2009, p. 76). A serious challenge to the consolidation of data at OR Communication will be consolidating all of the disparate information from around the firm into a single enterprise data warehouse. It is very keel that there will be duplicate information, conflicting records, incompatible data formats, and other inconsistencies that will not lend themselves to easy integration.However, the reduction in duplicate and conflicting information will be vital to the success of OR Communication. Duplicate data means an increase in administrative work and overhead, and conflicting and inconsistent information means the company is not performing at optimum levels. The reduction of duplicate data, or data duplication â€Å"can improve the performance of virtual systems, reduce network traffic and cut the costs associated with data protection. In addition, duplication allows backup data to be replicated more efficiently to other sites for disaster recovery' (Symantec, 2011).Duplication increases the amount of data a corporate network must process, reducing efficiency and increasing costs. Storage costs increase as the same information may be stored and backed up across multiple databases, again wasting resources. Finally, duplication of data significantly increases the amount of labor required to utilize it in any useful manner. Clearly, OR Communication will need a significant amount of data duplication to create a useful, consolidated enterprise data warehouse.To facilitate the proper stewardship of information, an information management policy needs to be created that information management policy will dictate the rules and guidelines for how information is handled, who is responsible for maintaining and updating it, and outline the policies and practices to do so (Mencken & Smith, 2009). To begin to unravel the data mess at OR Communications they should define an encompassing information management policy that will effectively address the issues of what information is retained, who is responsible for updating it, how it is to be maintained, ND who should have access to it.Critical to the success of this policy will be the inv olvement of management from all functional areas of the company. Each should be given the opportunity to contribute to the policy, and each individual needs should be addressed. In addition, the problem with this solution will be gaining acceptance from the different functional areas of the business. There will obviously be conflicts of ideas and differences of opinion in how the policy should be created and enforced. To improve the effectiveness of the policy it needs to be thoroughly enforced from top management down.This means to gain compliance, OR Communications' CEO needs to set the example and pressure all levels of management below to do the same. Another strategy to encourage the support of the divisional presidents for the shared customer service is by creating awareness that the free information flow would be beneficial for all and would simplify business processes, thus allowing then to increase their bottom line, and thus their bonuses. Finding opportunities to demonstr ate small success would help show the support being given to the divisions.To aid in compliance, a large corporate training program would be initiated to ensure the policy is well known by all associates. Gaining compliance by all of the business areas will be the most difficult part of this solution; the ingrained attitude of self-preservation that exists at OR Communication will be difficult to overcome. However, change is not impossible, but only by dedication of management. The initial implementation period will be the most difficult, and if enforcement waivers the policy may fail.Creating Useful Information from Raw Data One characteristic of an enterprise system is ensuring seamless integration of a Meany's information among all divisions, including financial and accounting Markus, M. L. , & Tania, C. (n. D. ). Hence, to achieve a successful enterprise system, a company must have its IT systems centralized to ensure information runs smoothly and is relevant among all divisions , especially the financial and accounting information. Considering the accounting problems brought up at the final meeting, the company obviously needs to implement a centralized IT function.Moreover, it will be far more expensive to have an enterprise system with a decentralized IT function, which is contrary to the aim of achieving an enterprise system. While a centralized information management system will indeed offer benefits at OR Communication, if there is no way to utilize and interpret that data, it is useless; this is analogous to being data rich and information poor. Just because a company has loads of data does not mean that is fully informed. A company such as OR Communication collects vast quantities of data, but having the resources to convert that into useful information can be an extreme challenge.At OR Communication, they are facing a double-sided robber; they have neither a collective data warehouse, nor do they have any effective information management. Once the problem of centralization has been massive amounts of data is using a metadata repository. A metadata repository functions much like the card catalog of a library; while it does not specifically contain the information, it provides an index of what is available, including the relevant points on what it contains, as well as a pointer to locate the information (Moss & Broodier, 2002).This index provides an extremely valuable resource tool to quickly locate pertinent information. In addition, the metadata repository should be designed with the ability to hook into other systems that are developed to provide information to mother systems as necessary. Establishing this framework now will offer increased benefits as more systems are built off the central repository. Addressing Corporate Culture As seen in OR Communications, lack of common information and enterprise IM strategy can cause several problems to the business and the IT department.OR Communications has encountered serious custo mer service problems, due to lack of common information and enterprise strategy. In addition, lack of common information makes it hard for the overall management to monitor the businesses. Business units are unable to exchange information, and none is aware of the other divisions' work. The company is not in a position to strengthen its brand since no divisions work together. To remedy this, a unification of the firm needs to take place from more than Just an IT standpoint.The disjointed nature of the firm's information assets reflects a deeper separation of the personnel at OR Communications. Departments work for their own ends with naught but passing concern for their effects on the company as a whole. This lack of cohesion manifests itself in the behavior of the CICS, divisional managers, and even the employees, and has resulted in the severe fragmentation of corporate culture. The fragmented IT systems are only a symptom of a much larger problem.Before addressing the IT problems at OR Communications, the underlying culture of the business needs to be transformed. This begins at the very top, with the president of the company and the highest leaders; they need to be the first to set the example, and it is clear their current attitudes have set the company on the disastrous course it is on. Removing the CIO team which has hampered the company's efforts at unification up until now was a good step, but serious considerations now need to be taken to prevent things from getting worse.Other associates could easily see firing the Close as a usurping of departmental sovereignty; however, they need to use this as an opportunity to show that the company can be brought together without sacrificing any of their needs. To capitalize on this opportunity the president and vice president should bring together the next level of management into a council of members to set the direction and ultra of the firm in a way that promotes unity and mutual respect.This council should be responsible for creating and fostering an atmosphere that shows the benefits of the firm functioning as one. They need to prove to the management and associates that their departments will have a say in decisions, and their needs will not be overlooked. To improve the odds of acceptance, the council should be selected from leaders that have proven themselves as examples of good leadership and who are respected in the firm.Key to the success of this council will be keeping everyone n equal footing and ensuring that no one area is given preference over another, needs then others, and sometimes priority will need to be given to one area; however, if this behavior is present from the outset they will receive much resistance from the firm, as this will reinforce existing fears. Once a unity of the firm has been established, people will be more flexible to accept changes after they see the benefits. It will be up to the president and vice president as leaders to maintain these policies and be the example.As demonstrated in previous cases, the president as been lax in demonstrating himself as a leader and this could prove damaging to any such plans to unify the firm. Leadership must begin at the top, and the success or failure of a company often reflects the abilities of its leadership. Implementation Challenges The advantages of a shared IT system eliminate some of the above-mentioned problems. A single centralized and standardized IT operating system will enhance quick decisions across all the departments, since all units will be looking at the same data.Furthermore, with a shared service, customers will not have to visit different databases for the same company; rather, all their queries and purchases can be done from one site that will serve them with all that they need from the company. Another advantage will be easy monitoring of the divisional units?their individual performances as well as their contributions to the whole company. Another advantage for the company will be the ability to monitor financial operations, since all operations will be reflected on one database centrally (Maces, 2010).To implement the shared service strategy, it will be important to seek support of the divisional residents, considering they will be in charge of the units, which are the moneymaking branches. Their willingness to participate in the construction of the shared service will benefit the whole company. The first step to the implementation of this strategy will require assurances that it will benefit the whole company far more than the current system that is facing opposition from not only the customers but also other stakeholders such as the suppliers.In turn, since employees' remuneration is awarded on performance, improved performance for the whole firm will be an added advantage. Since the divisional heads are used to being in control, it is important to remind them that having a shared service will not mean the imposition of decisions from above . Rather, the shared service will make the operations of the whole organization work in harmony for the purpose of easy monitoring customer convenience. They should be included as part of the implementation team, so they can offer input on what they may not want to change.For instance, many are worried they will have to do away with specific projects. Ensuring them that these projects will continue after implementation of the shared arrive would increase their support, as would helping them understand that the new, shared system will enhance the harmony and efficiency of whole organization; eventually they will come to see that their roles will remain mostly the same. Another way to improve the odds of success to a centralized data structure is by appointing a team to oversee the maintenance of the data warehouse from an enterprise level.Ideally the members of this team should be comprised of analysts from the important functional areas of the company. This can help gain buy-in from the many due to the fact that the members of this team have already proven 2011). In addition the benefit of incorporating these individuals is that individual departments will feel that they have representation in the new system, and that their interests are protected. This will increase the potential for global acceptance in the program.Another way to increase compliance with the new systems is to implement an incentive program that would drive associates to achieve the best results. Incentive programs drive people to reach specific targets by offering them tangible rewards beyond their current compensation. At OR Communications, an incentive program could be implemented to increase compliance and adoption of a new centralized system. For example, the company could offer monetary bonuses to departments that lower their operating costs using the new system the most.Another more abstract idea would be to have a small bonus program for departments that offer ideas to enhance the pro ductivity of the system. Many of the departments have complained that a shared system would cause them to be overlooked; however, offering this type of inventive would both encourage them to aka enhancements of the system while simultaneously demonstrating that their opinions count. Positive reinforcement, such as an inventive program, help gain the compliance of the workforce in a much more efficient way then punishment or negative reinforcement.There are governance mechanisms and metrics that can be used to encourage the implementation and use of a shared enterprise data system. The governance that needs to be put in place is the alignment of divisional units with the IT department. The metrics must be aligned with transparency to ensure that IT is in congruence with business operations. The governance mechanism should involve all departments focusing on regulatory issues, risk alleviation and opportunity enhancement.The metrics used should be concerned with making divisional data fit into an enterprise system. These metrics will identify areas of weakness and avenues of improvement. To quote an analogy, â€Å"Rome wasn't built in a day;† and it will take significant time and effort to remedy all the problems at OR Communications. Close governance and metrics will aid in any improvement plan. Recommendation: It is evident that OR Communications need an intervention in its customer service enter.The lack of a centralized customer care center is making it hard to provide unified services to customers. More so, a lot of time is wasted by customers who have to be referred to different department for billing. Customers are forced to have several accounts with the company for each division since each division is held with its independent operations including billing (Smith & Mencken, 2007). This makes it hard for customer care provision. Considering consumer service is very crucial for any business, OR Communications need a centralized customer service cent er.A internalized service center will have many benefits to the whole organization such as cost reduction, time saving, good management of customers' data or information, and customer satisfaction. I recommend a centralized customer service center for OR communications for its advantages as predetermined below. The divisional IT service means having separate audits for every division. Having each division with an individual audit is expensive for the company since several auditors will be needed.Eliminating the divisions will save some costs that would otherwise be used for the services of the auditors at every division. With a single it department, data can be fed means reduced time for audits since with divisions audits have to be put together after each department has completed its audit (Smith & Mencken, 2007). Coordination among the auditors will be efficient since information is collected from one point where all information concerning company accounts is stored.Therefore, hav ing a centralized service center will enhance such operations across the whole organization. In addition, with a centralized customer service center as well as IT, it will ensure information is collected at one point making it easy to access information mongering any department from any point within the company without having to refer to the division in charge. Hence, for the auditors, complying with the set Serbians Solely act will be easy since information about customer billing and accounts of the whole firm will be centralized ensuring accuracy.Having the customer service centralized enhances business operations and processes, ensuring best practices such as timely audits are realized. With data consolidated in one central place, information can be exploited to breed new opportunities for the company. When data is at one place for all the divisions, it is easier to have a broader picture concerning how the divisions can create a new opportunities. Exploiting these opportunities Jointly among the divisions is better than going individually.Moreover, security can be more enhanced with a shared service center since monitoring will be done by one entity. This will further reduce costs associated with having each division taking responsibility of storing and maintaining its own data. Considering that OR communications is currently having several software, consolidating information together for the whole company is hard. Smooth flow of information across departments to ensure easy sharing is vital; not only for the whole company, but for divisions too, considering information consolidation is a fundamental instrument for doing business.Consolidating the IT services to one centralized structure will require removing of service center hardware from each division to one central department that will mitigate risks and have a common structural design as well as policies that are easily reviewable for updating. A common security procedure will reduce risks associated with information breech. Through the same procedures ND practices, the company can reduce file systems redundancy within the organization and enhance efficient document retention as well as reduce costs.Another reason to have one service center is to match the technical capacity of the company with its vision. At the current divisional independence, the divisions exploit their own visions that are not in congruence with the organization's vision and mission. Considering the company's vision is to have a consistent brand across all the divisions, it is necessary to have cross-shared services across all divisions to achieve this vision. The vision can be achieved through cross- sales of all the company services to its customers, as opposed to each department having its selling strategy.Having a shared sales service will serve to reduce the costs incurred when divisions do it individually hence creating a better chance for profit across all departments. Having a central service center will ensure that the overall vision of the company is followed since the central service center will be inclined towards the vision of the whole company. This way, each division can have a chance of benefiting form other divisions, hence the company as a whole (Smith & Mencken, 2007). Having a single are outsourcing majority of their operations to other professional companies for reductions of costs.With independent divisions and IT strategies for each individual division, outsourcing will be quite complicated. Having a central service center to oversee all requests will enhance efficiency as well as value. More so, through the consolidation of IT services and information at one common place will reduce security risks associated with outsourcing services. This will further ensure reliability and security of information. A consolidation of information and IT services will enhance cross-services for customers such as billing (Mencken & Smith, 2011).The company divisions at current cir cumstance hold their information secret from each other, making it a competition within the divisions that raise the problem of billing where customers have to be referred to other divisions for other services. With the consolidated information, customers will only need to visit one department from which other information concerning other divisions can be met. This will improve the perception of their whole company as a brand and the standing of the company can be improved as well as customer satisfaction.There is need for the company to realize that in the current world information is one of the drivers of businesses, which all businesses need to survive. Having each division with its own information center reduces the chances of the company improving in the future since the harmonious climate needed among the divisions for this achievement is minimal. Having stipulated the advantages bound to arise or reasons why a central service center should be achieved, it is important to cons ider how OR can be able to implement this recommendation with ease and least resistance from the divisions.This is the first most likely problem to arise during implementation. Hence, the first step should be generating support form all divisions, which has been quite hard up to now especially from the managers who are self centered and concerned with their earnings that depend on their performance. The managers also have a negative attitude towards merging of information and data among the divisions through one central service. A three-point strategy can be used to gain their support. It includes financial strategy, mitigation of risks associated and compliance to regulation.Financial point can emphasize the advantages the shared service is bound to raise, which will for the benefit of all the divisions and organization as a whole. Risk mitigation will arise from security of information through monitoring by one entity in a standardized way, while regulatory will be concerned with abiding to set accounting rules of the Serbians Solely act which the company has been having problems with (Schwartz, 2007). The next step would be to lay out the vision of the company and show why it cannot be achieved with division of operations among the divisions.This will impart some reasoning among the leaders, and support fore all divisions should be ensured. The main aim is to make everybody in the divisions aware of the role they will play and their stake to ensure thee is compliance and acceptance of the strategy to build a one services center (Mencken & Smith, 2011). One of the problems that could arise after implementation of a shared service center is ease of adoption. Some employees who have been used to the old system will require to be trained how to work harmoniously with a single service center. Many will be required to handle more information concerning not only their divisions, but