Work Force Diversity

Definition:
Workforce diversity is simply how diverse is the workforce. Are there several people with a mix of cultures, age, background, race, and etc? If there are many people that have differences then you have a diverse workforce.

Al Smith:
Al Smith, president of AA Smith & Associates, calls this the frustrating cycle or employee churn. In the frustrating cycle, companies can spend ever-increasing amounts of money and experience diminishing productivity when the focus is only on creating greater representation. To be successful and truly reap the benefits of diverse functional backgrounds, perspectives, cultures, and languages, managers must be skilled in creating a productive, respectful, inclusive workplace where all employees can contribute to the business goals of the organization,

Explanation :
The ability to manage within the framework of a diverse workplace today is rapidly becoming as much of a key success requirement as knowing how to manage projects. Even if your company is not listed among the top forerunners in DiversityIncMagazine, the results of an increasingly diverse workplace and marketplace are without question impacting you and your organization. While some companies have well-articulated plans designed to ensure greater representation in their workforce, the demographic makeup of all companies is changing. Here are just a few of the factors that are creating change even in the most diversity-passive companies: Affirmative action policies Demographic shifts Marketplace forces More cross-functional and global work environments The replacement of "melting-pot" acceptance with the desire to be part of a mosaic

Innovation management
Definition:
Innovation management is the process of managing innovations, that is, ideas, in organizations through the stages of the innovation cycle.

Explanation:
The innovation cycle describes the activities involved in taking an innovative product or service to the marketplace. In essence, there are two aspects to this: Developing the innovative product or service. Building the business to market the product or service. The chart below provides an example of a typical innovation cycle with activities at each stage:

Stage
1 2

Description
Ideas Resources

Typical activities
Identify a market opportunity Organize people, finance and facilities to match the goals of the organization Research the possibilities Protect the intellectual property Model and test it for users Improve the technology Start production Advertise and inform people Communicate with the customers

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Investigate Patent Design Develop Make Sell Service

The first stage in the innovation cycle is ideas generation. Ideas will often arise from observation of a current or future problem. They could be inspired by the organization s objectives or by a new market situation that suddenly becomes an opportunity. Once the opportunity has been recognized, it needs to be evaluated. An important test for an idea is that it matches the goals of the organization and available resources people, finance and facilities. If there is alignment with the objectives of the organization, the idea moves to a new stage where it can be investigated and further developed. The development phase may involve further research into the opportunity or the patenting of the concept. Prototypes may well be designed, developed and tested at this stage. The decision to start selling the innovation is a critical stage. This is when significant resources are often required to support the launch. Sometimes an organization might wait at the end of the development phase for suitable market conditions. The final stage of the innovation cycle is commercialization, where the innovation is marketed and sold to the customer. The innovation now moves out of the organization s control and into the hands of the users. This is the hardest stage of the innovation cycle for organizations to manage . It is crucial that the organization monitors the innovation s performance so that any shortcomings are corrected.

Learning Organizations
Definition:
According to David Garvin n: (August 1993) "an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights."

According to Peddler et al an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and consciously transforms itself and its context ,

Explanation:
A Learning Organization is the term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself. Learning Organizations develop as a result of the pressures facing modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the business environment.

Importance:
Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining competitive Improving quality of outputs at all levels Having the knowledge to better link resources to customer needs Being better placed to respond to external pressures Improving corporate image by becoming more people orientated

Knowledge Management
Definition:
"Ron Young, CEO/CKO Knowledge Associates International Knowledge Management is the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire organizations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge, to better achieve their objectives" Knowledge Management (KM) is the set of professional practices which improves the capabilities of the organization s human resources and enhances their ability to share what they know.

Explanation:
Optimizing the Knowledge Management Process
The objective of knowledge management is to make this cycle more effective as well as more efficient. This implies that corporate knowledge be made available in forms which are readily Lessons Learned Internally accessible. This could take the form of Knowledge Documents, Processes, and Rules. These Documented Rules Processes Knowledge could be found embedded in Human Deliver Enhanced Resources, Information Technologies, or in Knowledge Capability Lessons the design of Facilities. The embedded 1 Learned Externally knowledge, in this way is accessible for reuse and ongoing evaluation for effectiveness and improvement. This challenge of performance improvement of Operate the knowledge management lifecycle is Business I1 O1 critical to organizational success, Business 2 Business Opportunities Results for without it, overall business performance will suffer. Getting the best Capable Humans Technologies Facilities knowledge through the cycle quickly before it erodes is a major goal of many organizations in intellect-based fast-paced companies. This challenge applies at the individual, workgroup, company-wide and inter-company levels. Each new level offers a greater degree of leverage and business results but also brings with it a set of more difficult issues, as long standing ways of doing things must be overcome. Knowledge management is all about creating and maintaining the optimum environment to make this happen. Knowledge Management closes the loop, which continuously converts tacit knowledge, based on experience into explicit knowledge for wider communication and back into tacit again through inference, experience and learning.

Work Place Spirituality

Workplace Spirituality is a recognition of an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community.

Matrix Management Definition:

A style of management where an individual has two reporting superiors (bosses) - one functional and one operational. Matrix management is a technique of managing an organization (or, more commonly, part of an organization) through a series of dual-reporting relationships instead of a more traditional linear management structure. In contrast to most other organizational structures, which arrange managers and employees by function or product, matrix management combines functional and product departments in a dual authority system. In its simplest form, a matrix configuration may be known as a cross-functional work team, which brings together individuals who report to different parts of the company in order to complete a particular project or task. The term "matrix" is derived from the representative diagram of a matrix management system, which resembles a rectangular array or grid of functions and product/project groups. The practice is most associated with highly collaborative and complex projects, such as building aircraft, but is also widely used in many product/project management situations. Even when a company does not label its structure a matrix system or represent it as such on an organization chart, there may be an implicit matrix structure any time employees are grouped into work teams (this does not normally include committees, task forces, and the like) that are headed by someone other than their primary supervisor.

Managerial Ethics

Corporate Social Responsibility

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication Making Good Business Sense by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, used the following definition. Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. Companies have a lot of power in the community and in the national economy. They control a lot of assets, and may have billions in cash at their disposal for socially conscious investments and programs. Some companies may engage in "green washing", or feigning interest in corporate responsibility, but many large corporations are devoting real time and money to environmental sustainability programs, alternative energy/cleantech, and various social welfare initiatives to benefit employees, customers, and the community at large.