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The Value of Fair Treatment in the Workplace
The Value of Fair Treatment in the Workplace
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The Value of Fair Treatment in the Workplace
Federal laws that are most important for protecting employees from workplace discrimination. Provide a compelling argument for the effectiveness of the legislation in protecting employees and two case law examples to support your assessment.
Fair treatment in the workplace has over the years been upheld mostly to give the employees job satisfaction and a work environment that promotes productivity. There are several federal laws that have been put in place so as to promote equality in a working environment (Jennings, 1). One of these laws is the Civil Rights Act’s Title VII, which has undergone numerous revisions (Cheun et al., 2). It guards against discriminatory practices related to racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and country of origin for both staff and work candidates. People who are forty years old and above are protected against age-based job discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), as modified.
Babbitt, et al. v. Albertson’s is a case law discrimination example worth mentioning. A lawsuit was filed in California challenging the exclusion of inferiors and females from promotions and employment prospects at large grocery shop companies (Kawasali, 3). Another example was that of the case law of Cahill et al V. Nike Inc. On behest of 4 complainants and a potential class of women employed by the Nike, Inc. headquarters and claim that Nike treated them unfairly terms of pay, promotions, and initial job assignments based on their sex, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho filed the lawsuit for satisfactory standard with co-counsel (Klein et al., 4). Both cases were filed because the women employed were treated differently from their male counterparts which is unfair and illegal.
Explain the actions employers must take to verify legal employment in the United States.
People are often drawn to live illegally in the United States to pursue employment opportunities. The legislation that imposes fines on companies has the goal of removing this magnet by compelling firms to recruit only those who are lawfully able to work in the US: United State citizens, noncitizen nationals, legal permanent residents, and noncitizen immigrants who are permitted to perform all qualify. Therefore, the employer must determine if a newly recruited worker has the legal authority necessary to be employed in the United States (Jennings, 1). Employers must take the following actions to ensure that they comply with the law in the United States by verifying legal employment. First, all employers must verify the employment authorization and the identity of all the employees they recruit. To do this, employers must fill out and keep a copy of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, for every employee they hire. When an employer completes the I-9 procedure, they authenticate an employee’s identification and employment authorization by reviewing the employee’s original papers and choosing the employee from a list of eligible documents. Lastly, to verify legal employment in the US, employers must refrain from treating people differently based on their citizenship or national origin (King et al., 5).
Some states do not allow undocumented workers, or those not legally permitted to work in the United States, to receive workers’ compensation benefits. Provide the law in your home state and a compelling and supported (with research) argument advocating for or against your state’s practice of allowing or denying workers’ compensation benefits to undocumented or illegal workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that, by its words, applies to any person who works for a company, as that term implies under the FLSA. There is no exception or exclusion in the FLSA for people who are not nationals of the United States or who are here unlawfully (Luckstead & Devados, 6). Because of this, the court system that have addressed the matter have consistently concluded that any employee of a company, regardless of immigration status, may bring a claim under the FLSA for work that was executed. In the Texas state, the lowest pay permitted by law must be paid to undocumented people. Only if the company provides the worker at minimum one and a half times the normal pay rate for the additional hours performed, they are not permitted to work more than 40 hours each week (Luckstead & Devados, 6). If their wage and hourly compensations are not satisfied, they may also file complaints with the district’s office.
Provide a comprehensive summary of the employment-at-will (EAW) doctrine that includes all possible legal exceptions to fight wrongful termination.
The Employment-at-will doctrine refers to an employment contract that states that the employee will be employed for an unspecified period and that the employment can be ended by either the employer or the worker (Jennings, 1). According to Jennings, most workers are subject to their employers’ whims and commands in the Employment-at-will doctrine (8). Thus, workers are subject to dismissal without any prior warning from their employer. In addition, the workers are free to quit whenever they like and will face no legal consequences. In the case of employment subject to the worker’s discretion, a clause to this effect would generally be inserted explicitly in the applicable employment contract. Although an employment contract may include an at-will provision, there are certain cases where termination of employment could still be unjust. According to the National Conference of the State Legislature, the Employment-at-will doctrine contains three main exceptions, likely to vary by state (7).
The public Policy Exception is the first exception to the Employment-at-will doctrine. The Public policy exception prohibits employers from firing workers violating recognized state public policy. This implies that an organization cannot fire a worker for refusing to do anything that would be against the interests of society. For example, a worker may not be fired in some states for submitting an employee’s compensation claim following an injury sustained at work. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (7), the Public Policy exception contains four main categories: a worker declines to do anything against the law in a particular state. An employee is whereby employee refuses to lie in court when being sworn in. The second category is in reporting an employer’s illegal behavior. An example is a case where a company is manipulating its accounting documents so that it can seem to be more profitable. The third category is whereby a worker engages in actions that benefit the general public, like joining military service or serving jury duty. The final category is performing a stator right. An example is when an employee files a claim under the state employee compensation law after getting injured while working.
The next exception to the Employment-at-will doctrine is the Implied Contract exception. An employee may rely on the supervisor’s actions to infer a promise of continued employment for a certain period or even indefinitely under the implied contract exception. This might be in the form of a promise made by the employer, the company’s policy of only terminating workers for a reason, or a statement made in the employee handbook. An illustration of an implied contract is when a manager promises an employee that they have a permanent job in the company. Another example of an implied contract would be when an employer guarantees the worker that no matter how serious the wrongdoing, they would always be allowed to fix it before being fired. This rather general phrase might have negative consequences if the employee decides to steal from the firm. It’s worth noting that even in the absence of a formal contract; the employee may reasonably conclude that their job will continue indefinitely.
The final exception to the Employment-at-will doctrine is the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing (National Conference of State Legislatures, 7). Currently, only a small number of states recognize this exception. A termination of employment for cause by the employer falls under this exception. An example of this exception is when there wasn’t any genuine cause for the termination. Still, the employee was due to earn a big bonus, and the employer dismissed the worker so that they would not have to spend the expenditure of paying the bonus to the employee after the termination. Two standard law exceptions to the EAW exist, both of which are difficult to show in court but worth discussing. The first one is promissory estoppel which arises when a potential employer makes a direct offer of employment. For example, the employees and their families have relocated to another state, and the company decides to rescind the job offer before the individual can start. The other exception is the intentional infliction of emotional distress. An employer causes an employee emotional stress that goes above and beyond what is considered “normal” for the position, and the employee responds by resigning.
Cite and support (with research) an appropriate EAW exception that the employee in the following scenarios could reasonably argue to save their job.
Scenario 1: JoAnn, a manager, started a blog on the company website for employee grievances and problems. She noticed that a worker was protesting that allegedly no Asian American employees had gotten a raise in two years at the company. Christine, the employee, also criticized how much CEO Elon had made last year and how he was “out of touch” with the realities of his employees. JoAnn reminded Christine that she was an employee-at-will. The next day, Christine talked to her co-workers about forming a union. JoAnn fired Christine and Christine is suing for wrongful termination.
Since Christine did not violate any laws when she voiced her thoughts about the firm and pay rate, I would say that it would be wrong to terminate her from her position from an ethical standpoint. Christine was likely being truthful when she stated that Asian-Americans did not receive a boost in salary in the past two years while their non-Asian colleagues got a raise in pay rate. Employees have every right to debate the possibility of creating a union in their workplace. The National Labor Relations Board states that if your workplace allows you to discuss other non-work-related subjects during working hours, your employer cannot restrict you from discussing the union within working hours (9). Since JoAnn has already informed Christine of her status as an employee-at-will, it is impossible to terminate Christine’s employment legally. It is possible to establish in court that JoAnn threatened to fire Christine and that Christine’s employment was terminated while she was having conversations with other workers about the possibility of joining a union. According to the National Labor Relations Institute, it is against the law to make threats or to carry them out against a worker who promotes a union (9).
Scenario 2: Steven, a department supervisor, fired his secretary, Ann. Ann, a devout Christian, had been putting Right-to-Life flyers in the employee breakroom. Steven talked to Ann twice and reiterated her actions were not appropriate. Ann continued to leave the pamphlets and took time away from work to pray at her desk during the busiest times of the morning. Ann is suing for wrongful termination.
Provided that Steven dismissed Ann, his secretary, purely because of her pro-life beliefs and the fact that she was conducting her prayers at her desk in the workplace, it was not ethical for Stephen to fire his secretary. For it to be presumed ethical for him to terminate Ann’s employment, it would need to be thoroughly investigated that Stephen had noted numerous instances in which Ann was not conducting to written expectations and guidelines, absenteeism, or any other legal means that could be used to terminate an employee’s employment.
According to the law, Ann is permitted to pray at her workplace provided that doing so does not place an unreasonable burden or one greater than the minimum necessary burden, on the company’s operation. Ann can pray at her desk, and several acceptable solutions exist. For example, a schedule switch or change could be made to help her out as she wants to pray during the busiest hours in the office. Some employees are pretty serious about their religion and beliefs and should be allowed to pray at work. In this case, instead of Stephen firing Ann, he could have vacated one room that can be used by all employees when they need to pray so that their religious needs can be accommodated.
Sources
Jennings, Marianne. 2022. Business: It’s legal, ethical, and global environment (12th edition) Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Cheung, Ho Kwan, et al. 2016. Understanding and reducing workplace discrimination. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ho-Kwan-Cheung-2/publication/305356387_Understanding_and_Reducing_Workplace_Discrimination/links/5ad5411c0f7e9b285936b0dc/Understanding-and-Reducing-Workplace-Discrimination.pdfKawasaki, Kenta C. 2016. A Genetic Analysis of Cichlid Scale Morphology. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1452&context=masters_theses_2
Klein, Felice B., et al. 2021. The gender equity gap: A multistudy investigation of within-job inequality in equity-based awards. P 734. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0000809King, J. W., Kersey, N. A., & Burritt, J. E. (2012). The essentials
Luckstead, Jeff, and Stephen Devadoss. 2019. The importance of h-2a guest workers in agriculture. P 1-8. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/cmsarticle_679.pdf
National Conference of State Legislatures
https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/at-will-employment-overview.aspxMarianne M. Jennings. (2018). Business: Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment (11th ed.). Cengage.
National Labor Relations Board https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/employees/your-rights-during-unionorganizing
Accounting Research Report, Strategic Marketing programs for Pioneer and Followers
Accounting Research Report, Strategic Marketing programs for Pioneer and Followers
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Subject: Marketing
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September 2, 2013
Strategic Marketing:
Introduction:
Present strategic planners, having established as much value as they possibly could by reducing costs, are now seeking to expand domestic markets, generate revenues and develop new markets in countries such as South Africa, Malaysia, India, China and Brazil. Though, before they strike out, they should be able to provide answers to some important questions. Whether or not it pays to be the pioneer with a service or product? Is it desirable to kill time and learn from the pioneers’ market experiences? What would be best balance between the rewards and risks? What strategies pioneer can implement to avoid market share erosion when followers enter? What strategies followers can implement to ensure a successful entry?
Strategic Marketing programs for Pioneer and Followers:
In most cases, according to Aaker (1998) studies indicate that being a pioneer to the market offers sustained and considerable market-share leverage over the followers. However, followers can succeed by implementing distinctive marketing and positioning strategies. In most industries generally, once pioneers have acquired incumbent status, they remain powerful. However, sometimes they become complacent or are not in a position to manage the shifting or growing marketplace demands. Followers can take advantage of failures of the products or services of these aging companies or devise innovative methods to market their service or product.
Pioneers that have a distinctive presence within the market should be in a position to react or better still, expect potential followers and improve their entry barriers. For instance, pioneer may be in position to lower its price and lower the business value for the follower or it can entirely obstruct entrance by controlling important distribution channels. Whether a pioneer or follower it seeking to frustrate newcomers, it is important to have a clear understanding of the defensive and entry strategies available, a game plan and good.
Strategies for pioneers
Typically, competitive strategies rely on the market environment and product portfolio and positioning of the existing companies and the basics regarding the study business include:
Lowering the price to enable penetration of the existing market: (Mass-Market Penetration): According to Leslie (2010) through the introduction of a low price product than the pioneer’s, a follower would attract new consumers who otherwise would have not bought the burger thus, growing the total market. Low prices can also motivate the existing customers of the pioneer to switch. This strategy however, would result in reduced profits for the follower in comparison to other market players, unless the cost of production of the follower is relatively lower. This can be implemented by both the pioneers and incumbents as well (Barnhart et al, 2007).
Improve service or product targeting niche market (Niche Penetration). Wansink (2006) argues that corporations can compete by becoming innovative within the marketplace and the innovation processes can be incremental or radical. Incremental innovation can be achieved through improving the version of the already existing product. The improved product can then directly compete within the existing offering, or it can be positioned to in such a way that it attracts a minor segment of the existing market.
Targeting new geographical markets with the already existing offering: With maturing home base markets, firms usually seek outside for more rewarding markets. A number of consumer goods companies such as McDonald, are seeking to ventures in China.
Establishing new distribution channels: McDonald can establish new distribution channels to effectively penetrate existing markets or access new ones. Going international cannot be the sole solution. In some instances the investment needed and the risk involved to penetrate the global markets may not have good return of investment. Concentrating on the existing markets where McDonald has proper understanding of the market environment, can bring rapid successes and may prove to be less risky. McDonald has achieved this through repositioning of its services and products through advertising and marketing (McDonald, 2013).
Apart from choosing the best marketing program, it is important to establish the timing of the introduction of the new offering. This is particularly true for the fast food companies, whose product life cycles are relatively short and it is hard for the followers to match them or draw reasonable returns. In a number of instances, when one is entering later or second in such a market, it is important to act so right away after the pioneer (Callaghan, Mc Coll, Palmer, 2008).
Strategies for followers:
The later entrant can implement a number of strategies to effectively compete within the market. Later entrant needs to substantially differentiate itself in the consumers’ mind. It can achieve such positioning through extensive changes in either its promotional activities or product.
The second strategy for followers is to determine creative means to improve product trail. According to Jagdish (2005) market-share leverage for the pioneers originates from greater trial penetration. If the follower can establish higher trial market share, then it can overcome its disadvantage. Trials of sample product can be an effective strategy. For instance in fast food business, consumer can be given a sample product for their trial.
The follower can as well adopt market segmentation through focusing on a specific target market. By offering desirable value, the follower can extract extra rents. A follower can also position itself as variety enhancer as opposed to a substitute or replacement for the early entrants.
Follower can also succeed through attacking high-growth marketplaces, especially when there industry is experiencing a significant shift. Those shifts can be as a result of technological breakthroughs or changes in regulations that enhance the product or breakthroughs which enhance the process of product production and delivery.
The other strategic option for followers can be micro-segmenting the clientele base, which implies targeting high-value consumers who are willing and able to pay premium price for service or product relative to the expenses accrued while providing to that segment (Sally & Robin, 2002).
Even as followers try to establish niche programs or redefine the business to attack established market segments and profitable businesses, pioneers can retaliate to regain their competitive edge. The fundamental marketing programs for the pioneers include; 1) enhancing the barriers for followers, 2) faster innovation than followers, and 3) develop flexible and market responsive company.
Growth-Market Strategies for the Market Leaders:
In most instances the strategic objective of the leading firm such as McDonald is to uphold its lead share position even as it faces growing competition with the expansion of the market. The marketing objective of McDonald who is share leader is to maintain its current customers, excite selective demand among afterward consumers.
Mainly, there are five consistent internal strategies that a company can adopt to ensure it has a leading share position and they include; position or fortress Defense strategy, confrontation strategy, flanker strategy, strategic withdrawal or contraction strategy, and market expansion strategy. The best strategy combination or most apt strategy is based on; the characteristic of customers and the size of the market, relative strength and number of competitors, and the leader’s competencies and resources (Bartol and Margaret, 2011).
Position or Fortress Defense Strategy
McDonalds continually makes stronger its already strongly seized current position. The company continues to improve the satisfaction of the existing clientele and enhances the attractiveness of its products. In improving customer loyalty and satisfaction, the company particularly pays focuses on quality control. It continues to improve and modify its offering, and this is not just the physical product but also the perception of customers regarding the company as well. This entails shifting of promotion focus from rousing primary demand to establishing selective demand, as this promotes repeat purchases among the current consumers and provide improved focus to post-sale services. Some of the actions that McDonald uses to simplify and encourage repeat customers include, reducing stock-outs within the store shelves. The more proactive processes comprise properly integrated supply-chain relations (Reid & Bojanic, 2009).
Flanker Strategy
This strategy involves developing another brand that will compete against the rival’s offering or products and defend against an attack that would be aimed at weaknesses in its present offering (Sutton, 1990). McDonald does this through trading up, for instance developing high quality product that is offered at premium price. In some cases, it entails a low quality brand to protect the primary brand of the leader from direct price wars and normally used in combination with position defense approach. This strategy is more effective when a company has enough resources to support and develop multiple entries.
Confrontational Strategy
This tactic involves beating or meeting the attractive features of the rival’s product after the success of the competitor has become apparent (a reactive approach). Confrontation approach largely based on reducing price renders more problem of reducing profits for all the parties concerned. McDonald avoids s the confrontation strategy problem by reestablishing the competitive edge (Westwood, 2010).
Market Expansion Approach
This is a more proactive and aggressive version of the flanker approach. Market Expansion approach shields market share through expansion into a several market segments and is especially appropriate within the fragmented markets. McDonald implements this through new brands, line extensions, alternative offering forms applying the same processes, and maintaining basic offering however, vary other aspects of marketing program (Reid & Bojanic, 2009).
Strategic Withdrawal or Contraction Strategy
This is the process of abandoning or reducing efforts in certain segments to concentrate in areas where the company enjoys the greatest growth potential or greatest advantage. Therefore, a company needs to consider this strategy in highly fragmented segments where it might to be capable of defending itself in all the market segments.
Followers’ Share Growth Strategies:
The main marketing aim for followers is seeking to establish profitable venture within a small segment whereas escaping direct competition from huge rivals (niche strategy). They may also seek to become a major competitor or displace the major competitor/leader (enhance growth share). The marketing strategies and action for followers to attain share growth include, when the market leader has penetrated a huge market portion, the follower can steal some repeat customers or replace the demand from the rival’s existing clientele. If it’s a fragmented or heterogeneous market or if the market is at the growth phase, the follower can attract a huge portion of new potential clients.
Share growth has five major strategies and what strategy to be deployed relies on the current strengths or position of the existing competitor, market characteristics, as well as the challenger’s own competencies and resources.
Frontal Attack
This involves head-on attack on your major competitor. Frontal attack has high chances of succeeding if the existing clientele does not have strong brand preferences, the target rival offering does not gain from the positive network effects and followers’ resources and competencies are stronger than that of the target rival. To effectively adopt this strategy, a company should differentiate its offerings in a manner that better meet the preferences and needs of the consumers within the mass market.
Leapfrog Approach
This strategy is designed to gain a considerable advantage through the introduction of a new generation of offerings that considerably outperform or offer greater attractive benefits compared to the existing products. It can be adopted to prevent rapid retaliation by huge competitors. To succeed, the brand should have a superior marketing resources and process engineering capabilities.
Encirclement and Flanking Strategies
This strategy focuses on weakness aspects of the product. Flank attack captures a considerable portion of the total market by focusing on a single huge untapped segment. The strategy meets the special needs of the untapped market segment through the provision of meticulously designed distribution channels or customer services. Encirclement targets underdeveloped or smaller untapped segments simultaneously. Followers achieve this through developing a number of line products with features and benefits tailored to meet the needs of various market segments.
Gorilla Attack
This tactic can be deployed when a huge well-grounded leader already covers the main segments and the follower has limited resources. It entails launching varies shocker raids against the main rivals and it is desirable to do it sporadically, within a limited geographical zone. A company can implement gorilla attach through, local advertisement blitzes, sales promotion activities, as well as short-term reduction of prices through sales promotions (Mark, 2013).
The core objective of this strategy is to stop a strong leader from expanding further its share or pursuing aggressive measures that would be expensive for the followers to react to.
Maintaining Competitive Edge in Declining, Mature and Shakeout markets:
Shakeout Markets:
This stage is characterized by decline in the overall rate of growth and manifested by price reductions (Wansink, 2006). There are also significant changes regarding competitive structure of the industry. The company should rationalize its offering line by getting rid of weaker items, improve channel relationships and focus on ingenious promotional pricing.
Mature Stage:
In mature stage, there is stability in respect to competition, technology and demand. Any considerable breakthrough in engineering or Research and Development, which can assist in differentiating the product or reducing its costs would have a significant payout. In this regard McDonald’s unique services become a mean of differentiation from its competitors. In overall, the prices and promotional expenditure seem to remain stable (Shukla, 2008).
Decline Phase:
A company or a product can get into this phase because of shifts in consumer beliefs, values and tastes or due to technologically advanced substitutes. As sales decrease and expenses raises, efforts are required to lower costs and asset base. In this stage, prices can stay stable when the decline rate is slow, however when the rate of decline is erratic and fast, aggressive pricing should be considered. For companies that offer consumer goods such as McDonalds, marketing activities should focus on distribution (Mark, 2013).
The Strategic Implications of Maintaining Competitive Edge in Declining, Mature and Shakeout markets is that it helps a company to better predict change in the brand’s strategic market objective, its marketing program and its strategy.
Relevance of New-Economy Markets:
According to Walters & Derek (2009) new-economy markets refer to those industries which significantly participate in the Internet or electronic commerce. Increasing market acceptance of electronic commerce as well as other new-economy processes and the inherent leverage that they create imply that McDonalds and other companies need to assess how it will have impact on their business and take advantage of such new technologies. The results of such assessment should be the establishment of individual’s new-economy process.
Opportunities of New Economy for business:
The possible attractive features which characterize a number of new-economy strategies include:
Information syndication: This entails selling the same product to several customers, who then may mix it with information from other areas and distribute it. Information syndication is relevant because it supplies informational products as opposed to tangibles, McDonald can syndicate the same informational services or goods to unlimited number of consumers with least incremental cost. The technique can be digitized or automated, allowing the creation and expansion of the syndication networks, and the flexibly is quickly adapted than could possibly be in the physical world (Shukla, 2008).
The network externality or positive network effect implies that a product increasingly gets more valuable as its users increase in numbers (Wortzel, 2007). Firms which can exploit and identify opportunities where they can take advantage of the increasing returns to scale, which comes as a result of positive network effects sometimes, can quickly grow on reserved capital investment.
It has the ability to efficiently customize and personalize market products: New-economy markets allow comparing purchases, tracking purchases, and collaborative filtering with others for product recommendation and companies that does this satisfactorily record increase in customer purchases. Users can also specify the nature of what is provided to them through customization techniques and helps establish customer loyalty and renders less possible that customers will switch to another provider.
It enables the restructuring and disintermediation of channels of distribution. In terms of disintermediation, the internet renders it possible for business to directly reach their customers without the complication or expense of the distribution channel/s. However, it is important for companies to establish how the functions performed normally by the channels would be performed and has to determine whether doing so would be more efficient and effective as opposed to using intermediaries.
New-economy markets allows instantaneous delivery, 24/7 access and global reach. Service and access of this nature is ideally a massive value to customers.
The Relevance of designing marketing plans and organizational structures for the implementation of various competitive strategies:
Within fast food industry, standardization and quality control are very critical (Walters & Derek, 2009). However, as McDonalds expanded, its founder Ray Kroc deployed extensive use of behavior control and output control to standardize both employee behaviors and outputs at the company’s numerous franchises. Kroc developed a comprehensive system of procedures and rules, and then trained the management how to use them. He used the franchising process itself as a control form, because the managers are the business owners, most agency issues are resolved and they are quite inspired to quality control. Moreover, employees are taught the company values and norms are firmly enforced by the management. McDonald’s even goes a further step to incorporate customers within its culture through offering friendly-family services and products. This case examines how a company culture is taught to managers and employees, how the founder’s values influenced it and how it became component of industry culture, so that every customer could virtually describe McDonald’s values (McDonald’s, 2013).
Importance of Organizational Structure with regards to competitive strategies:
Strategy implementation can be defined as the form in which a company should utilize, develop and integrate control systems, organizational culture and structure to follow plans, which lead to better performance and competitive advantage (Fifield, 2006). Organizational structure apportions special value establishing roles and tasks to the workers and outlines how these roles and tasks can be interconnected in order to maximize customer satisfaction, quality and efficiency, (which are the competitive advantage pillars). Nonetheless, organizational structure in itself is not enough to motivate the workers, and therefore organizational control system would be needed. The organizational control system furnishes managers with motivational inducements for workers, and also feedback on organizational performance and employees.
Strategy changes often result in organizational structure changes. Organizational structures should be established in a way that they enable the strategic pursuit of the company and, thus follow a strategy. When a strategy or mission is lacking, firms find it challenging to create an effective structure.
There is no single optimal organizational structure of design for a type of organization or a given strategy. What is effective to a given firm may not be suitable for a similar company; however successful companies within a given sector seem to organize themselves in the same way. For instance, fast food companies such as McDonalds and Burger King Corporation appear to adopt the divisional structure-by-product type of organization. Small companies within the same industry seem to be centrally or functionally structured whereas medium-sized companies seem to be decentralized or divisionally structured. As companies grow and expand, generally their structures shift from simple to multifaceted due to concentration or combination of various basic strategies.
Importance of Marketing Plan with regards to competitive strategies implementation:
Due to the fact the strategic planning integrates all business functions; it incorporates marketing functions as well. The contribution of marketing is critical give the essential market orientation that the contemporary business need to have, and due to the marketing decisions that tackle product-market combination selections. Marketing plans have moved from sales and production orientation and are now oriented toward the competitors and customers (Adam, Armstrong, Brown, and Kotler, 1998).
Marketing planning is relevant to strategic competition is a number of ways. It is externally oriented process and the future of businesses because it emphasizes on attaining differential competitive edges. Marketing plan also handles decision concerning organizational resource allocation. Lastly, it is an integrative and synthetic process and a therefore, it provides invaluable assistance to the competitive strategies approaches of the whole organization. Concerning McDonalds, its specific contributions comprise the following:
Assessing the competitive position of the company
The definition of corporate mission
Determination of alternative opportunities for investments
It helps in the establishment of the emphasis that need to be put on new products and on market expansion regarding its existing offering
Product mix decisions and diversification and
External resources acquisition and internal development
Westwood (2010) notes that marketing planning process consists of three discrete stages and they include 1) marketing mission statement, 2) marketing objectives drawn from the established mission, and 3) array of strategies to accomplish the objectives. First, the strategies relate to a particular market target, and then the marketing mix programs are established to meet the needs of the target market, such as promotion, service levels and price among others. A number of strategy options can be used by companies, for instance merchandise development (for instance sales through the inclusion of a new product), penetration strategy (for instance market share increase), selectivity strategy, diversification strategy, vertical integration that empathizes on serving identified market segments, market development that deals with appealing to new customers, and merchandise strategy that makes decisions regarding which products to offer and finally pricing strategy.
Functions of marketing Metrics and marketing Audit:
Marketing Metrics
Over the last couple of years, there has been a considerable growth in the type and number of marketing metrics which managers can deploy to assess the effectiveness of marketing and create marketing strategies with the objective of improving organizational performance. The role of such marketing metrics is in two fold (Weiber and Tobias, 1998). One, marketing metrics function to enhance accountability of marketing within the company and to rationalize spending valuable company resources on marketing programs to the executive management. Two, marketing metrics assists retailers and managers to determine future customer drivers and company value and establish linkages between financial outcomes and marketing strategy. When retailers are able to determine store value and customer drivers, their managers would be able to maximize store profits and customer.
According to Walters & Derek (2009) the rise in the different marketing metrics had been due to various factors. To start with, the rise in database technology has enabled companies to gather more information regarding their customers and to some extent information regarding their competitors as well as their customers. Second, the introduction of new distribution channels, for instance the Internet has considerably increased the complexity and availability of marketing metrics for companies. Lastly, the identification of new firm value and customer drivers, for instance referral and word of mouth behavior has resulted to increase in the number of various marketing metrics beyond measurement of simply return on investment and customer value.
Marketing Audit: The role of marketing audit is to determine the most reliable and suitable system of marketing strategy and feasible modification of the present marketing plans methods (Bartol, and Margaret, 2011).
Conclusion:
In a number of markets both pioneers and followers function with incomplete information. Early entrants can take this advantage by implementing appropriate signaling techniques as a deterrent. For instance, early entrants can reduce price, hinting to potential followers that it is a low-cost business and it would be hard for them to succeed. In most nations, it is however illegal to price below the variable cost. Conversely, followers usually concentrate on a few core market segments classically the ones which subsidize the cost to provide to pioneer’s market segment. Therefore, it is critical for early entrants to understand segments of their consumers and implement a differential pricing strategy to draw maximum return from each of the segments.
For McDonald to enhance its market share and corporate performance level, the company should consider the below suggestions. McDonald needs to implement strategies which will advance the differentiation of its offering within the continually growing market trends. The firm should improve the value of its offering though branding and improve on some of its lowly performing fast foods in the market. This would boost the company sales, thus translating to more profits. Since McDonald’s in well known to maintain cooking uniformity and quality across the globe, maintaining such a strategy in new and existing markets will enable the company to maintain and increase its current market share.
Drawing from the public critics that most products from fast food companies fuel obesity, it is critical for McDonald’s management to make sure that they satisfy all the food and health regulations so as to comply with safety regulations. This would motivate more customers to consume its products.
As a matter of reducing operational costs, it would be advisable for the company to continue with franchising strategy in new and existing markets. In respect to marketing strategies, it is essential for McDonalds to maintain its current marketing initiatives but enhance some. McDonalds needs to improve on its media advertisement. Conduction regular market audit is critical for the company to determine its market share extensiveness.
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Weiber,
Accounting recording transactions
Accounting recording transactions
Name
Professor
Course
Institution
Date
Scenario 1
Luca Pacioli book keeping principles refers to the use of double entry method to determine the difference in assets and liabilities in business transaction though determining aspects to debit and those to credit in a journal (Andruss, 1937). Through this partition in the independent occurrence of assets and liabilities, the business has the capability to establish the existence of expenses and profit acquired from deduction of expense. According to Luca Pacioli, every aspect of business transactions requires an opposite counter in recording the transaction where a double entry is culminated such that the entry of information regarding a transaction utilizes an equation that maintains balance in record keeping. In the above scenario, the manager who is obviously meticulous about his severance uses a conniving scheme to ensure that he maintains his bonus after end of the year business closure in accounts and determination of profit margin as per the financial year (Silverstone, 2012). Since the manager is in charge of deciding how the company manages records accounting transactions, he suggests that expenses of the year in question be transferred to the next year to ensure that they do not affect the business profit. Luca does not agree with the logic of this scheme in whatever context of the matter. He states, “Nobody should go to sleep until the debits equalled the credits” (Brown & Johnston, 1963). Lucas uses the concept of debit and credit as premise for maintenance of a balance sheet objective to “balance” when creating journal entries and to avoid misrepresentation of data on the ledger. Considering the above case, the accountant lack of recording the transaction but providing funds for the expense of the maintenance cost violates Lucas principle of book keeping. Considering the facts of the case on one side, the accountant will debit the maintenance account but will not credit the amount from the funding account therefore resulting in a false depiction of the trial balance amount of profit made in the financial year.
Scenario 2
The manager in yet another scheme decides to use the expense of a machine as insurance for the coming years that have a high expectancy of low profits. The analogy of the manager is that the cost of the machine in the particular financial year will be absorbed and used as compensation for the forthcoming years expected to yield low profits. Since the company uses a policy that deducts a 10% amount of the cost of the equipment accounted as depreciation and recorded as an expense throughout the useful life of the equipment, the cost of equipment is distributed in accordance to the service that the equipment provides. Luca Pacioli agrees with this scheme since it poses no harm to the bookkeeping recording of transactions. Irrespective of the motif used to arrive to this strategy, the concept preferred by the manager possess no harm to the business since complete compensation of the cost of the equipment deducted from the records consequently results complete accounting of the cost of the equipment instead of using a scheme that distributes the cost over a period of ten years. Luca only requires that there be a record of the asset and the cost of the asset (Brown & Johnston, 1963). By accounting for the cost in the particular year, a journal entry of the equipment is debited while a similar entry of credit to the funding account hence balance is maintained.
Reference
Andruss, H. A. (1937). Ways to teach bookkeeping and accounting. Cincinnati: South-western Pub. Co.
Silverstone, H. (2012). Forensic accounting and fraud investigation for non-experts. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Brown, R. G., & Johnston, K. S. (1963). Paciolo on accounting. New York: Garland Publishing.