The Essay Explores Contextual Factors In Organizational Decision Making. (70 Characters)

You are required to:

Identify five (5) journal articles that match the first five topics of this unit. That is, you must find one journal article per topic:

a. Organisational structures or governance,

b. Environmental forces,

c. Risks confronting the firm,

d. Organisation and business practices, and

Write a introduction discussing why the contextual factors are important to organisational decision making.

a. defining the main contextual factor being discussed in the journal article,

b. the new findings in relation to the contextual factor, and

c. what these findings mean for managers in organisations.

A business organisation has a number of aspects that has to be in sync with one another in order to achieve. Business management is a research field that has a variety of subjects and variables explored by scholars. With the help of academic research scholars develop models and frameworks which are used by the management in order to achieve the objectives. Decisions and policies of the business are made on the basis of the analysis which is backed up by evidences from the academic research on the topic of concern. There are two environments that a business organisation operates upon internal and external. Where the internal environmental aspects are under the control of the management the external aspects are not, thus in order to ensure a favorable milieu among the two environments it is important for the management to refer academic journals. In this assignment five topics will be explored from renowned journal articles.

Chen, V. Z., Li, J., Shapiro, D. M., & Zhang, X. (2014). Ownership structure and innovation: An emerging market perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 31(1), 1-24. DOI:  10.1007/s10490-013-9357-5

In the assignment there are two contextual aspects that are discussed: ownership structure and innovation. Structure of an organisation is the way the company works in terms of addressing the right person at the right time. It ensures there is coordination in allocating the work and supervision of the functions. In the article the authors argue that the structure of ownership in a firm gives an important leverage to the management by which the management allocates the resource and employee the capabilities of the firm in order to innovate. Organisation structure is based on the values and principles that are followed by the people associated with the company. Many companies follow a strict hierarchy and formal chain of structure where as there are organisations that run on Matrix structure where the area and scope of free thinking and more flexibility.

The new findings that has elucidated from the conclusion are: ownership type diversity and ownership concentration are essential for incorporating innovation; they have also found that there are a number of factors in the external environment apart from the ownership structure that impacts the process of innovation. As the external factors are not under the control of the company structure of ownership becomes an important internal resource that can be channelized. The authors also indicate a new topic of research: ownership concentration to be gaining more importance in the future research.

Environmental Forces

These findings are important as it provides insights regarding the ways in which the structure can help and the ways in which innovation is important in the process of growth.

Schilke, O. (2014). On the contingent value of dynamic capabilities for competitive advantage: The nonlinear moderating effect of environmental dynamism. Strategic management journal, 35(2), 179-203.DOI: 10.1002/smj.2099

Every organisation wants to establish a separate identity in the market in order to gain competitive advantage over the other players. These decisions of the company are based on the environment factors that impact the organisation. The contextual factors in the articles are competitive advantage and environmental dynamism. Competitive advantage is the strategy that has been taken by the organisation in order to gain an edge over the other competition in the industry, for example there are organisations that undertaken pricing strategy on the other hand there are organisation that take the product development and innovations strategy in order to make a mark. Any strategies that a company takes are based on the dynamics of the business environment.

The findings of the research suggest that competitive advantage is not always based on the dynamic capabilities. The authors argue that there is no fixed formula when it comes to dynamic capabilities. The authors also conclude that environmental dynamism has a significant contribution towards establishing a link in between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage.

The research implies that the intermediate stage is the most effective time to establish a relationship in between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage therefore the managers of an organisation must ensure that there is constant analysis and understanding of the environmental aspects in order to understand the opportunity that lies ahead and also to determine the time when the strategies should be employed in order to gain the maximum result out of the dynamic situation.  Opportunities come with threats and thus, it is essential for the managers to understand the situation before taking any step.

Kim, S. H., Jang, S. Y., & Yang, K. H. (2017). Analysis of the Determinants of Software?as?a?Service Adoption in Small Businesses: Risks, Benefits, and Organizational and Environmental Factors. Journal of Small Business Management, 55(2), 303-325. DOI: 10.1111/jsbm.12304

Risk is a factor that is associated with any business regardless of the scale, nature and industry. The intensity and the nature of the risks keep changing based on the above stated factors. This is one of the major contextual factors of the article. Apart from that there are a number of other factors that are discussed in the assignment such as environmental factors that impact small business. risk that is associated with the situation that is being analyzed is of security of data and information as the business model is concerned with Information Technology.  The study is based on the fact that SaaS model of cloud computing not only helps in improving the information technology capabilities of small business units but also helps in developing the business process at the same time. The intention of the article is to find the reasons for organisations in Korea to adapt to SaaS.

Risks Confronting the Firm

The results that the authors have discovered from the analysis of the data are: the main area of focus of the organisations is on the security risks. The management is more concerned of the data protection than performance or economic gain in the case of employing such a model. The other areas of focus are the business process, management support and support of the suppliers in installing SaaS model.

This is important for the managers if they are channelizing the resource towards IT capabilities, according to their preferable area of concern they can choose the model which will be appropriate for the business.

Huang, K. F., Dyerson, R., Wu, L. Y., & Harindranath, G. (2015). From temporary competitive advantage to sustainable competitive advantage. British Journal of Management, 26(4), 617-636. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12104

In this article the authors focus on the management and administrative function of the business of taking competitive decisions for the company. Companies are more and more becoming aware of the intensity of the competition owning to the trade in the international market. This aspect has made it imperative for the companies to come up with strategies whose results are not only short term but also have a long term impact. The aspects of the company which are difficult for others in the industry to duplicate and also allow the company to have an advantage over the others in the market are called sustainable competitive advantage. The study draws a clear demarcation of the concepts of temporary and sustainable competitive advantage.   

The findings of the research suggest that firms with good resources of capabilities in terms of technology along with a strong position in the market can make an impact with the help of temporary competitive advantage. The authors establish a relation in between temporary and sustainable competitive advantage by stating that the companies can accumulate the results of the temporary strategies in developing a sustainable competitive approach for the organisation. The authors also state that the position of the company in the market is a source temporary approach whereas the resource and capabilities are the source of sustainable strategies.  

Depending on the objective of the company the managers can incorporate the strategies accordingly, in case they are looking forward for a long term or short term impact they can focus of the aspects that are suggested by the authors in the article.

Engelen, A., Schmidt, S., Strenger, L., & Brettel, M. (2014). Top management's transformational leader behaviors and innovation orientation: A cross-cultural perspective in eight countries. Journal of international Management, 20(2), 124-136. DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2013.04.003

Organisation and Business Practices

Owing to globalization there has been an increase in acceptance of diversity among the multinational organisation. The contextual factors that are associated with the article are the approaches of a transformational leader; change is one of the main aspects associated with a transformational leader along with motivation. Another contextual factor is innovation; the authors try to establish a relation in between the two concepts. Innovating the product or process is a part of the change that is brought around by a transformational leader. The article focuses on the ways in which specific behaviors of a transformational-leader influence the firm's innovation business model and the role national culture play in this setting.

The findings state that Findings reveal that the behavioral aspect of a transformational-leader has a positive impact on innovation in the business process. But the level of intensity of the impact varies from one situation to another.  The authors also discuss that there are two aspects which are independent of cultural influences: “providing an appropriate model” and “accepting group goals”.

Managers of a multinational firm who are trying to incorporate innovation in the business process or product can gain from the analysis of the article. They can get insight of the issues that are faced due to cultural difference and the ways in which this issue can be resolved. The HR department of the company is responsible for ensuring a diverse approach to the company this article will also help the HR department to understand the criterion that are required for the manger to deal with an multicultural team along with innovation.  

Conclusion

The risk of the leaking of the student data and the personal information is one of the major contextual issues in the organization. The university has an online presence with the facility given to the students to login to the different information and the data stored on the website. The website is also accessible to a number of people who want to understand the curriculum and know about the university. This poses a major threat of the data of the students that is saved in the organization. The protection of this data should be one of the major steps taken by the university.

The protection and management of the data can be helped by the usage of a number of different facilities in website. The organizations should install a  number of firewalls or create a different internal servers for the students who need to access the different services they get from the university. The risk management of the issue should be one of the prime concerns of the organization especially for the organization which houses sensitive information of a major population. The university should therefore work towards improving their online presence while providing security to the students.

References

Chen, V. Z., Li, J., Shapiro, D. M., & Zhang, X. (2014). Ownership structure and innovation: An emerging market perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 31(1), 1-24. DOI:  10.1007/s10490-013-9357-5

Engelen, A., Schmidt, S., Strenger, L., & Brettel, M. (2014). Top management's transformational leader behaviors and innovation orientation: A cross-cultural perspective in eight countries. Journal of international Management, 20(2), 124-136. DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2013.04.003

Huang, K. F., Dyerson, R., Wu, L. Y., & Harindranath, G. (2015). From temporary competitive advantage to sustainable competitive advantage. British Journal of Management, 26(4), 617-636. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12104

 Kim, S. H., Jang, S. Y., & Yang, K. H. (2017). Analysis of the Determinants of Software?as?a?Service Adoption in Small Businesses: Risks, Benefits, and Organizational and Environmental Factors. Journal of Small Business Management, 55(2), 303-325. DOI: 10.1111/jsbm.12304

Schilke, O. (2014). On the contingent value of dynamic capabilities for competitive advantage: The nonlinear moderating effect of environmental dynamism. Strategic management journal, 35(2), 179-203.DOI: 10.1002/smj.2099