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Creating wealth in organizations
Creating wealth in organizations
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Strategic leadership involves relying on the managers and employees in an organization to come up decisions that will be beneficial to the entire organization. In this leadership strategy, the managers and employees have to be well aware of the strategic direction of the organization so that they make decisions that do not damage the organization. It requires a lot of effort on controlling and monitoring and very little effort on what is to be done on long and short-term viability. In many organizations, it is true that strategic leadership influencing employees to come up with decisions that enhance the organization (Adair, 2002). The decisions which are made voluntarily and the actions which employees and managers take voluntarily daily is what determine the strategy that emerges. In many organizations, the employees and managers are only guided on what is expected from them by strategic leaders and hence they end up making decisions on their own. This is through emphasis on making decisions based on ethics and based on value (Adair, 2002). The leaders often have strong and positive expectations from their subordinates, superiors and also themselves.
Strategic leadership normally presumes visionary leadership when it comes to the willingness to take risks. It involves believing in strategic choices in that their choices have a big difference in the entire organization and environment. Visionary leadership in an organization can provide a solution to the many problems faced by the organization. However, it is difficult to find an organization that has embraced visionary leadership unless there is support from managerial leadership. This leadership style is quite risky and hence many organizations fear to embrace it. It is future-oriented and entails risk taking since these leaders do not depend on the organization for any decision they make. Organizations still require visionary leaders to make sure that the organization has a long-term viability.
Working for visionary, strategic and managerial leaders have their positive sides and areas which need improvement. Strategic leadership involves the emphasis of strategic goals of the organization hence it is easy to for manager and employees to achieve these. It also involves having positive expectations from self and others which leads to better decisions and improved performance. There can be managers and employees who do not know the strategic direction of the organization and hence end up inadvertently making decisions that can damage the organization (Kippenberger, 2002). There are also some managers and employees who are well aware of the strategic direction but they just want to damage organization. They end up voluntarily making decisions that affect the organization. This calls for an improvement in terms of controlling and monitoring of the managers and employees when they make decisions.
Visionary leaders are quite proactive and bring changes in how people think in terms of what the organization requires. They work hard to make sure that they come up with choices, new approaches to problems and work from positions that present high risks. This helps making decisions that are effective and provide solutions to problems within the organization. They come up with strategic choices which positively impact the organization. A negative side of visionary leadership is that these leaders might end up investing more on their own visions than what is warranted by returns (Kippenberger, 2002). If there is no constraining influence from managerial leaders there could be a destruction of wealth in the organization. This can be improved through combining managerial and visionary leadership in the organization.
Managerial leaders are reactive and have positive attitudes towards the goals that are set in the organization. This makes it possible for these leaders to create goals from what is necessary but not what they desire or the dreams they have. It leads to setting of better goals and hence better performance in the organization. They also influence the decisions and actions of the people they work with. This leads to making better decisions since the decision making process is guided by managerial leaders. They believe in determinism in that the choices they make are influenced by both the external and internal environment. The negative side of this leadership style is that these leaders do not create wealth for the organization. They only work towards maintaining already created wealth and they might end up destroying the wealth in the long-term. There is need to improve managerial leadership when it comes to creation of wealth for the organization (Kippenberger, 2002).
The most effective leader for the Capsim Company would be a strategic leader. Strategic leaders are different from managerial and visionary leaders in that they dream and do something about the dreams they have. Strategic leaders create more wealth compared to managerial and visionary leaders combined. Managerial leaders mainly concentrate on short-term financial stability. Visionary leaders mainly concentrate on the long-term viability of an organization. Strategic leaders have the potential of creating wealth for an organization due to the various qualities of the organization. Their leadership involves the emphasis of ethical behavior and strategic responsibilities (Adair, 2002). They also come up with strategies useful for the immediate impact as well as preservation of long term goals in the organization for growth, viability and survival. They also use financial and strategic controls to emphasize on stability and growth of the organization.
References
Adair, J. (2002). Effective strategic leadership. London: Macmillan.
Bottom of Form
Kippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership styles. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.
Describe how data is transformed into information and how information is transformed into knowledge
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Describe how data is transformed into information and how information is transformed into knowledge. Provide examples of how software supports these transformations
Data is raw subject fed into a computer by a user. Data is transformed into information through message coding. The computer codes the information fed and translates it into useful data. For example, information about a person is made up of single data such as sex, age, address, and occupation. Information is transformed into knowledge through the coding process. Installed programs in a computer are used transform information into knowledge. Software supports transformations through effective programming processes using the computer language that understand the communication between data, information and knowledge (Shelly, Cashman & Vermaat, 2010).
Describe cloud computing. Explain three advantages and disadvantages for organizations that choose to use cloud computing versus owning and installing the software.
Cloud computing is a form of network computing model whereby a program installed in a computer depends on a server or servers located in a different place rather than on the local computing device such as a personal computer, tablet, Smartphone etc. A person using cloud computing connects to a server to perform different tasks and the process can run more than one computer at the same time (Furht & Escalante, 2010, pp. 17-19). For an organization using cloud computing rather that owning and installing software, these are the advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
Firstly, the organization will undergo less maintenance cost because the hardware, applications and bandwidth are managed by the server/provider. Owning the software leads to high maintenance costs because the organization will cater for software maintenance.
Secondly, cloud computing is always available to the public and are easily managed unlike personalized programs that might fail to work on some operating systems. An organization using cloud computing enjoys the effectiveness and efficiency of the system because it is less vulnerable to virus attacks.
Thirdly, the organization enjoys scalability because they only pay for the applications and data storage needed. Owning and installing the software requires the organization to cater for all costs including purchasing the software and maintaining data.
Disadvantages
Cloud computing eliminates the aspect of taking total control over a company’s data because it is being processed by an external server. It leads to exposure of organization’s crucial information to the unwanted parties interfering with privacy.
Secondly, cloud computing does not accommodate every information stored from different organizations. Some computing restricts applications, operating systems, and infrastructure calling for an organization to own and install compatible software.
Explain the Five-Component Framework. Using Starbucks, explain how each component is used, be detailed.
The five components of a framework are:
Hardware: this refers to the machinery including the central processing unit (CPU). It is used to hold computer components together
Software: These are programs installed in a computer and are used to direct the hardware in order to produce useful information from data.
Data: These are facts used by computer programs to produce information.
Procedures: Policies governing the operation of a computer
People: People are used to influence the success or failure of information system by operating a computer system. They are also involved in maintenance activities (Shelly, Cashman & Vermaat, 2010).
Describe why relational databases are more efficient AND effective for data management in organizations. How does the task of restructuring the data help to achieve these goals?
Relational databases are designed to maximize efficiency of computer storage by preventing information duplication. Relational databases function as information scanners in a computer through coding each data fed into a computer and restructuring it to prevent duplication. Restructuring the data takes place through collecting of similar information and placing it under one copy.
Why is the security essential to the overall system plan for an organization? How do IS managers identify threats and vulnerabilities? Describe at least three types of threats that organizations face today
Security of information stored in a database if very essential because it contains personal private information that should not be shared in public. IS managers identify threats and vulnerabilities whenever they realize an unwanted authentication took place. In addition, threats and vulnerabilities are recognized when private information is leaked to the public, or when a manager realizes a certain program has been blocked by a user.
The main types of threats and vulnerabilities faced by organizations today are:
Errors and omissions: These are important threats to data and computer system integrity. Users omit important information while inputting data leading to serious risks of wrong information.
Fraud and theft: The new technologies have come up with various tricks that IT experts use to steal private information from a computer. These people hack other user’s passwords and access their information.
Employee sabotage: Employees make the organization more vulnerable to risks and threats through entering data incorrectly, sharing company information to third parties, deleting useful data, changing data, or crashing computer systems by introducing viruses (Kizza, 2013).
References
Furht, B., & Escalante, A. (2010). Handbook of cloud computing. New York: Springer.
Kizza, J. M. (2013). Guide to computer network security (2nd ed.). London: Springer.
Shelly, G. B., Cashman, T. J., & Vermaat, M. (2010). Introduction to computers. Mason, Ohio:
South-Western.