Managing Change at SLMC Essay examples -- Change Management

If organizations are to thrive and be sustaining, they need to respond to the dynamics of their environment with change. However, change is not a singular event with an isolated focus (Spector, 2007). Effective strategic renewal is a combination of â€Å"the three faces of change†Ã¢â‚¬â€turnaround, which targets costs; technology, which targets internal process; and behavioral, which targets employee actions and interactions (Spector, 2007). In a discussion on change management, particularly management-by-control versus management-by-shaping, Palmer, et al. (2009) draw a similar conclusion that â€Å"organizations and human systems are complex and evolving and therefore cannot be reduced to a single, linear objective of maximizing shareholder value† (p. 50). Leaders and managers must be able to champion change in their organizations. Initiating and implementing new business strategies are some of the most significant and challenging of a leader’s duties (Mullins, 2011). Because people are often satisfied with the status quo, resistance to change is common. Therefore, a successful change leader must be capable of managing people and the process well. Unfreeze In order for SLMC to transform and achieve strategic renewal, which would require focus on the company’s fully insured health plan, the new leadership team made a compelling argument for change. By being able to demonstrate a need for change people will be less likely to resist change efforts (Mullins, 2011). Sloans’ new leadership was able to provide adequate justification for change by demonstrating the urgency that was required in order for the organization to survive. In addition, the new leadership explained the opportunities for success and advancement within the organ... ...Dunford, ,. R., & Akin, ,. G. (2009). Managing organizational change (2n ed.). New York, NY.: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Preziosi, R. C. ((n.d.)). Organizational Diagnosis Questioinnaire (ODQ). NA: NA. Robbins, & Coulter. (2007). Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A., & Vohra, N. (2012). Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Spector, B. (2010). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Tyson, B. (2010, August 25). Overview of Lewin's three stage change model. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/84148.aspx. Vecchio, R. P. (2008). Leadership understanding the dynamics of power and influence in Organizations,( 2nd ed.). Notre Dame, Indiana: university of Notre Dame Press.

Wii Case

Problem Statement: Sales of the Nintendo Wii have been much higher than initially forecast. As the 2007 holiday season approaches, Nintendo does not have enough capacity to meet demand. The shortage will negatively impact profit and potentially cause lost market share. The immediate issue is adjusting the marketing strategy to handle the product shortage and minimize the negative market effect. Situation Analysis: BACKGROUND: Nintendo was initially founded in 1889 as a card company. The Company moved into the electronic entertainment industry in late 1970. Nintendo went on to release its own home console in the 1980’s which was an instant success, subsequently dominating the video games market in home video games consoles and handheld consoles. In recent years, Nintendo has met fierce competition from Sony and Microsoft. This competition resulted in Nintendo’s market share dropping from 80% in 1992 to a low of 16% in 2003. Nintendo realized that markets, competition, and product life cycles were changing at a fast pace, and most of the profits were going to the innovators. In order to win back market share, Nintendo has developed an innovative new game console named the Wii. OBJECTIVE: The current objective for Nintendo is to effectively develop a marketing strategy to manage product sales through the 2007 holiday season. The long term objective for Nintendo is to maintain its market leader status, communicate customer’s needs in an effective way and fulfill customer’s expectations. S. W. O. T. ANALYSIS: Strengths: Offer differentiated products from its competitors; †¢In 2006, Nintendo won more awards than other company, including â€Å"Best of Show† award, and â€Å"Best Hardware† award; †¢More competitively priced ($249) than its competitors while still earning a profit ($50) as the Wii console is inexpensive to produce; †¢Brand name recognition (short, simple, easy to read and remember, internationally understood, and suggestive of product benefits—â€Å"ii† images gathering people to play); à ¢â‚¬ ¢Strong support from game evelopers to shift more resources to the development of Wii title; †¢Constant media coverage from newspaper headlines drew attention to the Wii console; Weaknesses: †¢Nintendo lost significant market share after it reached its peak of success; †¢Inability to keep up supplies with international market demand; †¢Does not provide extreme high definition and DVD/Blue-ray capability; †¢Negative media-individuals had injuries due to the controllers slipping out of users hands; Opportunities: A recent movement in society towards healthier lifestyles. Wii meets the demand by incorporating physical movements when playing the game; †¢There are only two competitors which directly compete against each other with graphics, leaving room for Nintendo uses a different selling feature; †¢Potential market for video game consoles for non-traditional age groups (casual gamers and non-gamers) over age of 35; Threats: Consumers might turn to competitor’s product to satisfy their wants due to the Wii shortage problem; †¢Sony and Microsoft may offer more attractive deals to fight back for market shares; †¢Substitution is a significant threat and can occur within the existing competitors. Conclusion Nintendo offers an innovative product that offers good value to consumers. The threats from competitive brands are high. However, Nintendo is offering a unique product which is in high consumer demand.

Definition and Examples of Phonological Words

In spoken language, a phonological word is a  prosodic unit that can be preceded and followed by a pause. Also known as a  prosodic word, a pword, or a mot. The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology,  defines a  phonological word as the domain within which certain phonological or prosodic rules apply, for example, rules of syllabification or stress placement. Phonological words may be smaller or larger than grammatical or orthographic words. The term phonological word was introduced by linguist Robert M.W. Dixon in 1977 and later adopted by other writers. According to Dixon, It is quite common for grammatical word (set up on grammatical criteria) and phonological word (justified phonologically) to coincide. Examples and Observations From the book, What Is Morphology?: A phonological word can be defined as a string of sounds that behaves as a unit for certain kinds of phonological processes, especially stress or accent. For the most part, we dont have to distinguish phonological words from other kinds of words. It makes no difference for the words morphology, calendar, Mississippi, or hot dog whether we think of them as phonological words or morphological words. Sometimes we do need to separate the two notions. In English, every phonological word has a main stress. Elements that are written as separate words but do not have their own stress are therefore not phonological words in English. Consider...the sentence The hot dogs ran for the lake. Think now in terms of word stress. The sentence has seven words, but only four-word stresses, there being no stress on the or for. In fact, the English written word the receives stress only under unusual circumstances, in exchanges like the following: A: I saw Jennifer Lopez on Fifth Avenue last night.B: Not the Jennifer Lopez? Prepositions like for sometimes have stress, but as often as not are also included in the stress domain of the following word. We, therefore, say that the string for the lake, which we write as three separate words, is a single phonological word. Phonological Words and Syllabification According to Willem J.M. Levelt and Peter Indefrey in the book, Image, Language, Brain, Phonological words are the domains of syllabification, and these often do not coincide with lexical words. For instance, in uttering the sentence they hate us, hate and us will blend into a single phonological word: a speaker will cliticize us to hate, which leads to the syllabification ha-tus. Here the last syllable tus straddles the lexical boundary between verb and pronoun. Pauses and Infixes In the book, Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, R.M.W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenuald  say that  Pausing appears in most cases (although perhaps not in all) to be related not to the grammatical word but to the phonological word. In English, for instance, there are just a few examples of two grammatical words making up one phonological word, e.g. dont, wont, hell. One would not pause between the grammatical words do- and nt in the middle of the phonological word dont (one could of course pause between the do and not of do not, since these are distinct phonological words). The places where expletives may be inserted, as a matter of emphasis, are closely related to (but not necessarily identical to) the places where a speaker may pause. Expletives are normally positioned at word boundaries (at positions which are the boundary for grammatical word and also for phonological word). But there are exceptions—for instance the sergeant-majors protest that I wont have no more insu bloody bordination from you lot or such things as Cinda bloody rella...McCarthy (1982)—shows that in English expletives may only be positioned immediately before a stressed syllable. What was one unit now becomes two phonological words (and the expletive is a further word). Each of these new phonological words is stressed on its first syllable; this is in keeping with the fact that most phonological words in English are stressed on the first syllable. The Interaction Between Phonology and Morphology [T]he phonological word represents the interaction between phonology and morphology in that a phonological word either corresponds to a morphological word or is constructed on the basis of information on the internal structure of morphological words. By morphological word is meant a (possible compound) stem plus all affixes associated with it, says Marit Julien in Syntactic Heads and Word Formation.   Sources Aronoff, Mark and Kirsten Fudeman.  What is Morphology?  2nd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag. The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford University Press,  2013. Dixon, Robert M.W. A Grammar of Yidin. Cambridge University Press, 1977. Dixon, Robert M.W. and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Words: A Typological Framework.  Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge University Press, 2002. Julien, Marit. Syntactic Heads  and  Word Formation. Oxford University Press, 2002. Levelt, Willem J.M. and Peter Indefrey. The Speaking Mind/Brain: Where Do Spoken Words Come From. Image, Language, Brain: Papers From the First Project Symposium. Edited  by Alec P. Marantz, Yasushi Miyashita, et al., The MIT Press, 2000.