Question

Learning Activity #1 - Theme 1

The article, The Balanced Scorecard, as well as this week’s readings discusses the balanced scorecard.

Artemus Gordon is mentoring a new management trainee. The new trainee is unfamiliar with the balance scorecard and its use in the production department. Artemus says,

“The best tool a manager has is a balanced scorecard because...”.

Finish the statement by explaining the purpose of a balance scorecard and how it functions.

Then, compare the value of the SWOT tool to the value of the Balance Scorecard. Do you agree with Artemus that the Balance Scorecard has more value or are we comparing apples and oranges?

Learning Activity #2 - Theme 2

Traditionally, the managerial function of controlling is not to be confused with control in the behavior or in the manipulative sense. The control function does not imply that managers should attempt to control or to manipulate the personalities, values, attitudes, or emotions of his or her employees. Instead, this function of management concerns the manager’s role in taking necessary actions to ensure that the work-related activities of employees are consistent with, and contribute toward the accomplishment of organizational and departmental objectives.

Research the concept of the virtual organization. Then, explain how a manager can measure work that is performed when the employee may be 5,000 miles away? Be sure to consider the virtual and global organizations and how a manager would control and measure work from afar.

PLEASE PROVIDE REFERENCES FOR ALL WORK CITED

Answer 1

1. SWOT analysis helps the people to find the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. It focus on the internal and exteranal factors and explain how we capture the chances with our abilities either by individual or by companies. But balanced score card is different method, which focus on strategic objectives of the firm, management styles and practices of the firm to achive its objectives. The benefits of BSC are:

• express to the employees what they have to achieve and how to achieve
• prepare plannings to perform the daily work as part of the policies and strategies
• rank and order the projects, products and services
• monitor the performance
• measure the work or output interms of targets (http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSC-Basics/About-the-Balanced-Scorecard)

It gives clear picture to the workers about their role in the department or oganization, what they need to do, achive, how they need to integrate with others, perform tasks as part of organizational targets etc. Here it foucses on group or team activties instead of individuals. Hence it gives the picture about group or team performance.

2. In management functions, controlling does not mean that maniupulate or stop employees to not do something or to do something. It is the process of alligining all the employees or integrate all the functions in a meaningful way. Suppose if you are in construction department, the activities are integrated with each other. You can not build walls unitll the pillars were completed. you can not fix pipes and wiring untill walls and slab is completed, you can not paint the walls and interior, till the total construction is completed. Hence, in this, as a manager your target is move the functions simultaneously based on their inter-relation to the other works.

when it comes to controlling people or manager at foreign nation in our company, is happening and doing by many firms in really. In this, the management or managers spreads around the world, works in different timings, interact with each other by electronic communcation channels. They should interact with each other, know about the progress, the stage of work, how it should accomplish, when it must be done and so on. The managers can interact with help of web channels like video conferences, mobile chats, e-mails, messengers and so on. Hence, the distance is not at all limitation to interact or measure the performance of some one who is 5000 miles away from here.