Political Frame Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Political Frame Paper - Essay Example Rather than allowing the use of power to be destructive, the manager can learn to use power and politics as a skill to be developed within organizational arenas. The first assumption of the political frame perspective states that organizations are a compilation of competing interests and groups (coalitions) with conflict and tension inherent in conducting day-to-day business (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Because of limited resources it becomes necessary for the organizational members to vie for the rights to those resources. There is no escaping the politics of the organization environment. For example, if a Danish center director and a regional marketing director are negotiating with a corporate client that needs French and English training within a month for four executives who are travelling internationally, but a competing center in Italy with the same regional marketing manager also has a need for the same resources for a different client, how would the company make the decision as to which client gets the resources first? Who would take priority? If the regional director is Danish, would it be the Danish center director? From what can be found on the website, those decisions would follow the regional headquarters procedure, because the cultures found under that regional headquarters (in this case Denmark and Italy are both under Europe) are qualified to consider all interests equally (Berlitz, 2010) . Organizations form into coalitions that attempt to influence one another by pooling resources and power of the various members (Bolman & Deal, 2008; McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). The Berlitz Worldwide Regional Directors can use a variety of influence methods to get what they want from one another. Influence tactics include: deferring to authority; assertiveness; information control; coalition formation; upward appeal; ingratiation and impression management; persuasion; and exchange (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). There are factors to consider when utilizing an influen ce tactic such as upward, downward, or lateral influence, the influencer’s power base, and personal and cultural values. These factors are the reasons why Berlitz is a particularly challenging organization to communicate within. There are a number of aspects to be considered that can be extremely diverse that can affect the power base, reactions, body language, response time, level of defensiveness to requests. Again, factoring all of these things takes time and in the fast-paced world we live in, the leader may not have the luxury of the time to work the issue as some might say and resort to â€Å"hard tactics† rather than â€Å"soft tactics† (p. 356). As a global organization each leader will have to consider the culture they are operating within and the culture of the coalition they are attempting to deal with or experience an exchange. The second assumption within the political frame perspective is that the coalition members cannot ever shake their differenc es. No matter how much training, coaching, and peace keeping skills a leader/manager/diplomat may receive, that coalition member will continue to have persistent differences in attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, feelings, and activities (McShane & Von Gl

Customer Satisfaction and Demand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Customer Satisfaction and Demand - Essay Example (Macrae 1991) Although there is a strong case for privatization of industry, in many countries the political forces of welfarism were far too strong to turn such public monopolies into private enterprises. Many governments found a via media approach, in deregulation of industries. This is the process by which governments removed restrictions on businesses in order to encourage competition that would not only improve efficiency and lower prices but also protect the rights of the consumers. For instance, the board for public utilities of Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada states its mission as: "ensuring the state's public are well served in a changing environment, achieving an equitable balance between the interests of consumers and service providers in the electric utility, automobile insurance, petroleum products and motor carrier industries." ("Newfoundland & Labrador Board " 2005). Similarly, in its 2006 Handbook, the department of Consumer Affairs - Industry, Canada has given useful tips not only to save money on their utility bills, usage of natural resources responsibly and protecting the environment but also contacts and mechanisms for redressal of grievances in case of problems with public utilities. ("Canadian Consumer Handbook" 2006) The argument for total deregulation was that the regulated industries often influenced the government regulatory bodies tilting the scales in their interests. Although the regulatory bodies might have started functioning independently, many of them have fallen prey to the industries they sought to regulate and were in many cases influenced by them. Ironically the same pattern could be discerned even in the process of deregulation. Some of the perceived failures of deregulation have found favor with the proponents of re-regulation for a calibrated approach for each case separately and in consonance with the winds of change that are sweeping across businesses such as liberalization and globalization of markets. According to the 1989-1992 Electricity Act, British consumers can choose their electricity supplier. Regional electricity companies not only have to meet the standards specified in the act but also face fierce completion from others. It is no different for water companies. They face enhanced pressure for improved customer service, reduced wastage and environmental damage. The standards of service are driven not by the regulator but by the industry and customer expectations. The challenge would be to achieve high levels standards to meet heightened consumer expectations without increasing costs. Public utilities long considered slow and unresponsive to the market are forced into making investments to remedy their shortcomings. (Mansell-Lewis 1994). Customer satisfaction: It is well known that customer satisfaction largely leads to customer loyalty. Loyal customers bring in a higher share of their expenditure, repeat business, referrals and word-of-mouth publicity. As deregulation and liberalization increases the number of players competing in an industry, the net effect for the service providers is heightened customer expectations. According to a national opinion polls (NOP) survey commissioned by Olista, a 'service experience assurance' company, users who encounter problems while using mobile data services would simply give up rather than seek assistance. The report is headlined "impatient mobile data users aren't prepared to give operators a