The dissertation focuses on the impact of innovation and technology on business management. For this purpose, the pharmaceutical industry was targeted and specifically Pfizer was selected for the purpose of conducting the research. The company has created a solid reputation within the industry and thus a systematic approach of the mentioned key ideas on this individual business entity would provide a further insight on the matter. Thus, a brief summary of this whole scenario would be that Innovation involves using an idea more efficiently.
The significance of innovation and technology cannot be denied since it has resolved number of environmental and organizational challenges. For example, use of environmental instruments, energy technologies, innovation in products, organizations and processes etc. In present era, despite of innovation and technological advancements, many organizations are still suffering from low productivity. This research aims at analyzing the impact of innovation and technology on business management by examining the Pfizer pharmaceutical case study.
Innovation and Technology Usage on Business Management
This has unfolded the findings which were helpful in generating results for the betterment of organization and formulating innovative strategies and processes. The research allows one to generate the difference between the two major aspects. Though, these two go hand in hand, yet they are dissimilar in many ways. The idea is evident from various examples such as innovative business procedures and technological advancements. Many believe that these innovative business decisions were created via technological advancements. Hence, all these aspects have been clearly mentioned in this dissertation report.
Dissertation Aims
To explore innovative strategies which are effective for pharmaceutical company (Pfizer Pharmaceutical) where, the main focus is on the pharmaceutical industry and how this particular company fosters innovation in order to become effective and efficient in its field of operations.
To formulate competitive growth strategies and find out their impact on business management which is the essential need of the moment. Many business organizations are suffering despite the fact that they are innovative and have various methodologies in order to become effective and efficient. Thus, this research aims to provide such companies with a chance to experience growth and create a perfect business environment for growth.
To analyse the impact of changing innovation and technology on business management in case of Pfizer pharmaceutical as it has been previously talked upon that technology is considered as one of the major indicators of change and allows a company to go beyond its true potential at a particular point in time.
To evaluate critically the impact of innovation and technology on business management keeping in view the Pfizer pharmaceutical so as to provide a clear idea regarding the impact of innovation keeping in mind a pharmaceutical company. This would allow others to learn the process of taming the beast which they call “Innovation” as they are eager to incorporate it to achieve a higher end.
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This essay is based on a recruitment plan for a manager trainee position in an American based company known as Enterprise Rent-A- Car. It highlights the road map for staffing a manage trainee’s position. A good plan enables a company to hire qualified employees who are committed to attain successful personal careers as well help in attaining the company’s objectives through hard work. Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company is a top car rental company in the United States of America under the management of Enterprise Holdings, Inc (Rent-A-Car Par. 1). It is the best place for management trainees to start careers as per the Business Week’s listing in the year 2006.
The company’s business strategy mainly focuses on customer satisfaction. This has contributed to the company’s fast growth over the past decades. In the Company group, there is National Car Rental, WeCar, Alamo Rent-A-Car and RideShare among others. Its business model provides a variety of vehicle classes that are available for renting. Most of its vehicle models are bought from General Motors. The culture of Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company stands on the following core values: good brand name, honesty, fun, hard work, listening to customers, community development and inclusion of globally sustainable activities.
Introduction
The company was founded in 1957; it has been ranked the best in customer satisfaction particularly in airport rentals over the past eleven years. It is the provider of vehicle on rental basis to NHL and NCAA among other big transit companies. The company is prominent as the largest fresh college graduate employers in the United States of America, Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company’s management structure is majorly informal. It allows the employees from all levels to interact freely. Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company has branches worldwide including USA, Canada, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) with more than 70,000 employees all over the world (Rent-A-Car Par. 3).
Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company’s global presence helps the company to access larger market share thus high revenue for the company. During the recruitment plan exercise, attention should be given on how to staff such a sensitive position due to its key roles and responsibilities as pertains to a trainee manager. There are consequences and implications of having low performers in the position. For instance, a low performer can lead the company sales revenue reducing drastically, this can be as a result of market share loss. Implications of having high performers in the position include, rise in the percentage market share due to the innovative nature of the employee, this ensures high revenues for the company. The company should have a strategic context for future proposal for recruiting and selecting for this job. This is due to the dynamic nature of the rental car business as there is more use of information technology as seen it the case where the customers book for a car through the company’s website. Such services recommend employees with substantial knowledge on the use of such eCommerce platforms.
Description of the staffing system used by the company for the job
Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company uses both external and internal recruiting systems. External recruitment planning involves news paper advertisements, recruiting on campus, referrals among others. The advantage of using this system is that it gives the Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company new and varied approaches from its employees despite such a process being so expensive to undertake. On the other hand, internal recruitment is where the current employees can be promoted or demoted to fill the positions. This has an added advantage since it is a cheaper way of recruiting employees to fill positions within a company.
Perform the job/ competency analysis on the job in present and in the near future
Job analysis is the procedure followed when analysing a job for its specification and description. This comprises a list of qualifications required to be attained by the recruits and elements of that given job respectively. Job analysis is also used to evaluate employees to determine the level of incentives to be awarded. During job analysis the recruitment teams are able to come up with recommended qualifications for the job. Here are the possible qualifications essential and desirable in new hires in the position of a manager trainee for Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company;
Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of six months sales experience, customer service, excellent supervisory skills as most of the roles involve supervising others within the company.
Good leadership experience probably as a student leader in college.
A valid driver’s license is a MUST.
No drug related conviction for the last three years while driving.
Must be above 18 years.
Must be authorized to work in the country where he/she wants to work.
Must be flexible to work anywhere when posted.
Sourcing of Potential Employees
Advertisements for job vacancies are made through mass media. College recruiting is commonly used by Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company as a source of labour, this is either done through face-to-face interviews or applications through Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company’s website. Other sources of labour are current employees, referrals from employees, former employees, former military, customers, print and radio advertisements, internet advertising and social media, employment agencies and temporary employees. The above named sources are also the future labour supplies for the position.
Recruitment Plan
Appropriate recruiters are chosen to perform the task of selecting the right candidate for the job. The reward system is essential for this group of people in order to ensure that the recruiting process is successful. Human resource planning is essential during the selection process, in order to achieve this objective the past staffing levels, change in technology, the activities involved during staffing and other similar information are essential for the planning process.
The gaps between employees’ current supply and future labour demands of an organization helps in forecasting employee competencies and behaviour needed in the organization’s future. Present sales revenue are also used in strategic human resource planning future numbers of employees and the skills needed and the source of such people. Cultural diversity affects the labour cost, ease in human resource acquisition, flexibility, innovation, and problem solving techniques in the company as it adapts multi-cultural awareness and effective interpersonal skills into the workplaces. This is essential for multinational companies like Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company.
Internal Employee Assessment Plan
Employees’ job analysis is performed to provide employees with their performance results, these results can be used to distribute compensation as well as during training activities but more importantly to find potential candidates for any vacant positions. Any feedback should be delivered to the employees through the three approaches: telling and selling, telling and listening and problem solving (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor 62). Employee assessment results are important when downsizing an organization, the reason for the layoff should be clearly defined to the worker. This should be communicated to the new employees to avoid any legal issues. Legal precautions should be considered to avoid law suits for instance there should be a termination agreement. Right sizing of the company employees should be done to improve the employees’ efficiency this will as well reflect on the future labour demands of the company.
How decision-making plan enables the company to comply with Equal Employment Opportunity and other legal requirements
Good decision making procedures enable the company to avoid lawsuits as there is a well defined selection technique that avoids discrimination in any form say in terms of sex, race, religion or nationality. Age discrimination Act of 1967 which was amended in 1986 to eliminate discrimination against older people above the age of forty can be avoided through good decision making plans. Organizations with good decision makings plan help in selecting even the candidates with disabilities thus avoiding law suits from such people under the Americans with disabilities Act of 1990. Affirmative action by the company to encourage members from the minority groups to apply for jobs and hiring of qualified candidates from such groups can be achieved through effective decision making processes. The occupation safety and health Act of 1970 to protect the employee’s working environment to prevent ill health and loss of lives can be included in the terms and conditions of a company contract during decision making (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor 102).
Socialization Plan
For effective and comfort of the new worker in Enterprise Rent-A- Car Company he/she will need information on how business is conducted in the organization. Furthermore the new employee will need information on; how daily routines are conducted within Enterprise Rent-A- Car, its history, objectives, activities and products. Lastly the new employees are given the company policies, rules and regulations not forgetting their rights and benefits (Harold and Heinz 48).
Evaluation
It helps to cross check the costs of the selection process, the costs include; time spent during the process, salaries for recruiters, advertisement costs and recruitment expenses. Evaluation of the recruitment plan process can be based on the rate of application sent out, number of shortlisted candidates, performance of the shortlisted candidates, the total cost of the process, time lapsed data and reviews on the projected on the entire process. There are a number of recruitment evaluation methods; number of successful inquiries, the number of candidates at every stage of the recruitment plan process, the final number of candidates recruited and the number of the new employees retained in the organization for more than a half a year (Aswathappa, 2007).
Barriers of effective implementation of a recruitment plan
Perception; due to the difference in the way people perceive ideas, implementation of a plan can be a problem if the involved parties have different frames of reference. This may result in disagreements hence delays in its implementation. For example the members of a recruiting committee may not rate the recruit equally. This can result in a conflict when choosing the final list of the successful candidates. What is fair to one person may seem to be unfair to the other resulting to an unfair process, when people are recruited on an added advantage of their age, religion, region, race or gender among others.
Immobility and location; the locality of labour affects the recruitment plan process, marred women hesitate taking jobs in places far away from their families. This might result to inadequate number of female recruits thus affecting implementation of a gender equity recruitment plan. (Aswathappa, 2007)
Reliability; if a method cannot provide consistent outcomes whenever it is used to recruit employees, however, this might not be the case for some plans hence inappropriate to implement them. The performance and judgments of people varies from time to time as in the case of recruits and recruiters respectively. This means that if such a plan is used repeatedly with the same people involved the results are likely to vary from time to time.
Validity; A valid recruitment plan is easily predictable, but when the predicted results do not match the real situation then implementation of the stated plan may not be recommendable. This is as a result of internal and external factors such as location, trade unions regulations and paucity of desired expertise in the available labour force.
Pressure; if compulsions are used to select candidates, then such a plan may not be used due to the pressures from friends, family and politicians to select the stated candidate (Aswathappa, 2007). This means that even if the procedures where to be followed the results are always predetermined by such factors.
References
Aswathappa, K. Human Resource and Personnel Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2007.
Harold, Koontz and Weihrich Heinz. Essentials Of Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2008.
Pride, William M., Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor. Foundations of Business. Boston: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011.Print
Rent-A-Car, Enterprise. Enterprise Rent-A- Car. 2012. 22 November 2012
I do hope you enjoyed reading this recruitment plan blog. There are many other titles available in the HRM Dissertation Collection that should be of interest to human resource management students and CIPD professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of HRM such as employee engagement, HRM Theory, absenteeism, training and development to name a few. It took a lot of effort to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.
Title: HRM Dissertation Barriers to Women in the UK Construction Industry. In the 21st Century the idea of women in the workplace has become a widely accepted notion not just by society but also being enshrined in law with the introduction of the Equal Pay Act (1970), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), and the Equality Act (2010). As a result of this, many sectors within the UK economy have seen an increase in the equal representation of men and women in the workplace with occupations such as elementary education resulting in women forming 46% of workers, in the professional sector women make up 50% and within management and senior official roles women constitute only 33%. However, in stark contrast of these progressive figures, women form only 11% of the entire construction Industry with 80% of these roles that women occupy being in fact merely support roles carrying out things like secretarial work; only 15% of women are actually part of the professional body of employees- this constitutes just 1.5% of professionals in the entire industry.
Women-Construction-Industry
In 2006, Greed went so far as to say that these secretarial roles are not contributing to, or not being part of the construction process. It appears that although the construction industry has innovated in terms of methods and practices the same old ideas of it being a male-dominated world still remains. In order for the industry to thrive and remain relevant in these modern times it must adapt itself, and let go of this man’s world culture by encouraging and recruiting more women. It is on this basis that more Investigation must be done as to why there is such a lack of female presence within the construction industry and how as an industry it can attract the young girls of today’s society so that the industry will have a more representative and diverse future.
Dissertation Aims and Objectives
The aim of this research is to look into and analyse why there is such a lack of females within the UK construction industry, what can be done to change the perception of the industry as being a man’s world and attract the future generation of women to consider the industry as a viable career choice.
To investigate and evaluate if there is an actual need for women within the professional sector of the UK construction industry.
To compare the lack of women in the construction industry with other industries in the UK, and then with other EU member countries as a whole.
To examine the reasons why there is a severe lack of women within the UK built environment profession in the modern era.
To assess how those in secondary schools view construction and ascertain if they see a future within the industry.
To evaluate how the industry is trying to tackle this issue and whether these are having a positive impact or if more needs to be done.
Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
Aim
Objectives
Proposed Methods
2 – Literature Review
The need for women in professional roles within construction
Benefits to more women in construction
Comparison within UK and EU
Profession comparison
Comparison with the medical profession
Comparison of UK construction industry to the of Europe
Hurdles to women in construction
The choice between career or children
Flexibility and maternity leave
The construction Industry as sexist
Lack of female role models
The views of secondary pupils
Efforts of the construction industry
Employers role
Female construction organisations
3 – Methodology
Primary research
Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Selected Methodology
The Questionnaire
Selection criteria
Structure
Structured interview
Selection criteria
Structure
Desk Research
4 – Data Analysis
Questionnaire results
Interview results
Background information
University Life
Social aspects of university
Post university
5 – Discussion of Results
Preconception about construction
Role models
Sexism in the industry
Efforts of the construction industry
Employers role
Female construction organisations
Enthusiasm of female students
6 – Results and Conclusions
Limitations
Analysis of Research Objectives
Final conclusion
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Title: Innovation Management in the UK Construction Industry. The contemporary built environment increasingly calls for the incorporation of innovation in the agenda of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) organisations. Being widely recognized for its vital contribution to achieve a competitive advantage, innovation is perceived as the backbone to secure survival in the dynamic construction market. However, a contradiction is created when the necessity for the construction industry to innovate meets the distinctive elements of the industry’s own nature characterized by a temporary, adversarial and fragmented culture.
Innovation Management
This is the point where the need to face innovation with a conscious and well-integrated approach is revealed. Therefore, the present work aims to discuss how AEC organisations adopt innovation management at the organisational level, where organisational variables and management interventions affect its integration in the business, and to further provide suggestions for its wider promotion in the construction industry. The research carries out an extensive literature review and a series of interviews for the elicitation of empirical data, involving professionals closely related to construction innovation.
Innovation Management UK Construction Industry
The findings revolve around the examination of the construction-tailored concept and context of innovation and proceed to the investigation of the organizational dimension represented by strategies and techniques, as they are suggested by the literature and actually embraced by the interviewed construction firms. The synthesis of the innovation management interventions enable their suggestion to AEC companies, provided that they are critically assessed to their individual needs and capabilities. Consequently, this study can be a useful instrument for organisations that wish to contribute to promoting innovation in the construction industry.
Dissertation Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to discuss how AEC organisations adopt innovation management in the contemporary built environment and provide recommendation in order to promote and integrate innovation in the construction industry. In order to achieve the stated aim the following objectives are set:
Examine the current state of innovation in UK construction
Explore the role of innovation management and the organisational dimension of innovation in construction industry
Investigate the approaches of AEC organisations to strategically and tactically promote innovation
Identify effective strategies and techniques and provide suggestions for the adoption of innovation management by AEC firms
Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
Rationale
Research Aim and Objectives
Research Methodology
Structure of the Dissertation
2 – The Concept and the Context of Innovation in Construction
Defining innovation
Innovation in construction
Influencing factors on construction innovation
The role of the client and manufacturers
The structure of production
Industry relationships
Regulations/Standards
Organisational resources
Innovation performance of the construction industry
3 – Innovation Management at Organisational Level in a Construction Firm
Innovation management in construction
Organisational variables and management interventions
The role of leadership
The organisational environment
The business environment
Management approaches
4 – Research Methodology
Research Approaches
Quantitative Research Method
Qualitative Research Method
Research method selection
Methods of data collection
Literature Review
Interview
Synthesis exercise
5 – Data Analysis and Discussion
Classification of results
Background of the sample
Definition of innovation
Perception of in-house innovation
Barriers to innovation
Strategic approach to innovation
Tactical approach to innovation
Role of the construction sector
Synthesis of the findings
6 – Conclusions, Recommendations and Further Research
Aim and objectives restated
Recommendations
Limitations
Further Research
Summary
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Title: Forecasting Stock Price Volatility – This dissertation addresses the question of whether there might exist a more accurate method of forecasting volatility that those in common use today. More specifically the project restricts its scope to stock prices since historical data, including pricing, for these assets are transparent, readily available and voluminous. Before moving on to the research hypothesis, however, a final general observation about volatility is, perhaps, in order.
Volatility is a useful proxy for risk and it is commonly treated as such in the financial literature and mathematical models. However there is a countervailing viewpoint that volatility is not exactly the same thing as risk. A stock that rises exhibits high volatility, but if that rise is based on business fundamentals then the underlying risk may not have moved. The research hypothesis for this dissertation is that recent advances in machine learning and deep neural nets allow the construction of a high performance volatility forecasting model that is easier to configure correctly and more stable against changes in model hyperparameters or inputs.
An LSTM based recurrent neural network architecture is proposed as suitable for time series forecasting. Data from the CRSP US Stock Database and Google Trends is used to construct training patterns and testing patterns and the model is subjected to fifteen different training scenarios. These scenarios vary the model hyperparameters and inputs, and compare the consequent performance against three common benchmark forecasting models.
The model is found to perform well in most scenarios, be easy to configure and demonstrates good resilience to hyperparameter and input changes. In the highest performing configurations, the model demonstrated an RMS error rate less than 50% of the next best performing benchmark.
Forecasting Stock Price Dissertation
Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
Hypothesis
2 – Research Goal
3 – Theory
Stochastic Volatility
Volatility Forecasting
Artificial Neural Networks
Recurrent Neural Networks
Long Short-Term Memory
Tensors
4 – Data Sources
5 – Model Design
Basic Architecture
Input/Output Transformation
Training
Input Features
CRSP Features
Google Trends Features
Input Tensor
Output Tensor
Implementation Outline
Model Visualisation
I hope you enjoyed reading this post on Forecasting Stock Price Volatility. There are many other dissertation titles available in the Finance Dissertation Collection that should be of interest to finance students and practitioners. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of finance such as Financial Management, Global Finance, International Banks, Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, Investment Banking, Corporate Strategy, Risk Management, Finance Portfolios, Share Prices, Capital Investment, Financial Planning and Micro-Finance to name a few. I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.