Rylatt (2003) makes a distinction between tangible and intangible assets, which is physical and non-physical resources, suggesting that intangible assets should figure on financial reports as they bring value to their own enterprises. Company was used to evaluate its value by adding up all its fixed assets like stocks, factory equipments, and buildings. It is difficult to place a financial value on such factors as high morale, good customer relationships, positive branding and a smart learning culture (Rylatt, 2003).

There are now many accounting bodies and industry groups researching how intangible assets can be better recorded (John, 2004). The great dilemma for many experts is that placing value on talent and genius is seen as a very rough science. When it comes to measuring know-how, no one approach can meet all needs (Mishra & Gobbeli, 2001). Specific measures or indicators are heavily influenced by the nature of the operations that exist within each business.

Five areas commonly explored in existing reporting on intangible value are, customer capital, human capital, intellectual capital, relationship capital, systems performance (Rylatt, 2003). Customer capital attempts to place a value on the nature and quality of customer relationships, customer satisfaction rates (John, 2004). Human capital measures the current know-how of people under the business’s control. Intellectual capital constitutes listings and perceived values of trademarks, trade secrets, patents and branding (Mishra & Gobbeli, 2001). Relationship capital involves describing important strategic alliances, business partnerships, joint ventures etc. Systems performance explores how systems and processes directly or indirectly benefit or generate improved know-how (Rylatt, 2003).

Today businesses can no longer measure performance and potential purely on traditional financial reports that focus on tangible assets (Rylatt, 2003). What is required is a fresh approach to exploring how knowledge-or intangible assets-fuels business success (Mishra & Gobbeli, 2001). It is vital that each business explores how its know-how is creating value (John, 2004).Thus in the next decade the reporting of so-called intangible assets will dramatically change the accounting landscape. Systems performance can be measured by the investment in information technology or digital technology. Measures of productivity and waste reduction could also be included in the systems performance.

References:

Rylatt, A, 2003, Measuring your know-how, Winning the Knowledge – Game, The McGraw Hill companies.

John, R.M, 2004, Intangible assets: values, and risks, Business & Economics, The McGraw Hill companies.

Mishra, C.S, Gobbeli, D.H, 2001, ‘Managerial incentives, internalization, and Market valuation of multinational firms’, Journal of International Business Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp.15-22.

Managers tend to be modernists, as postmodernists they might operate as if they were outsiders, and leave the change process mostly to the self-organization of their employees, while enhancing their employees and creativity in that process(Visscher & Rip 2003). Managers may compensate their own modernism by hiring ironic or postmodern change consultants. In many cases, individual managers and consultants will not fit purely in one of the categories of the typology (Rorty, 1989). They may, in fact, behave like chameleons, changing color in changing contexts. If changing colour becomes a conscious strategy, this might be seen as a fourth type, the chameleonic change agent. But this flexibility may also be seen as inconsistency and may lose credibility (Latour, 1988).

Change agents are like butterflies. They may have great impact, but then they may not (Visscher & Rip 2003). They should not overestimate their ability to influence the success of organizations. Enlightened modernists can see the possibility of guaranteeing some success, but only in contexts where they think chaos can be bracketed, and even then success is uncertain (Rorty, 1989). But that does not mean that change agents who accept chaoses cannot produce any added value for an organization. The opposite is true, but their added value shows in the change process itself and not in its results (Latour, 1988).

References:
Latour, B,1988, ‘ The pasteurization of France’, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

Rorty, R, 1989, ‘Contingency, irony and solidarity’. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Visscher, K & Rip, A 2003, ‘Coping with chaos in change processes’, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 121–8. (online) 

Chenhall and Langfield-Smith (2003) further state that it is not sufficient to only implement change but it is also important to measure the change implemented. The authors of this article claim that implementing efficient management control systems (MCS) is an essential part of management functions. This helps managers to ensure that employees are helping the organization to move towards its goals of continuous improvement and increased productivity. An effective control system establishes standards of performance, measures the current performance and compares it against established performance. Furthermore, it takes remedial action to correct any performance that does not meet those standards (Stoner et al. 1994).

Chenhall and Langfield-Smith (2003) further affirm that setting MCS standards exerts a motivational impact on employees as it helps them clarify their orientations and control goal attainment. The targets offer a performance benchmark for managers to strive for and they provide a standard which can be used to judge success or failure and which are also useful to provide feedback about actual performance. But, if the targets are too difficult to attain, employees tend to get discouraged and lose their commitment. Hence, the most important point is to find the equilibrium between challenging and realistic targets. The standards should therefore be set at a level perceived as achievable.

The real challenge would be to involve all the employees, in one way or another, in the development of performance standards so as to make the contribution of each employee more tangible and measurable at lower levels in the organization, to convince employees of the importance of performance standards, and to increase their commitment for performance improvement (Wouters 2009). Chenhall and Langfield-Smith (2003) add that if management can secure the commitment of the employees to its new philosophy, many of the hurdles would be overcome as it often takes dedication to get past obstacles along the way. If people believe in the worthiness of the new system, they will trust the strategic change and do their best to improve operations leading to improved performance.

Reference:
Central Queensland University (CQU) 2008, HRMT 20019, Managing leadership and the change initiative, Innovation and Change, studyguide, Rockhampton.

Chenhall, RH & Langfield-Smith, K 2003, ‘Performance measurement and reward systems, trust, and strategic change’, Journal of Management Accounting Research, vol. 15, pp. 117–43.

Stoner, JAF, Yetton, PW, Craig, JF & Johnston KD 1994, Management, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Wouters, M 2009, ‘A developmental approach to performance measures – Results from a longitudinal case study’, European Management Journal, vol. 22, iss. 1, pp 64 – 78 (online Proquest).

Leadership is the process of influencing people towards achievement of organizational goals (Carnall, 2003). Instead of concerning with activities within the formal structure and goals of the organization, leadership focuses more on interpersonal behavior (Andersen, 2000). Therefore leadership is about influencing others in pursuit of the achievement of organizational goals (Beer and Nohria, 2000). Thus, Leadership not only manages people and the tasks to be accomplished, but entails motivating them to achieve their goals. Therefore, Senior & Fleming (2006) defines the concept as the process of influencing followers to attain organizational goals through change.

The theories that explain what makes a person a good and effective leader can be put into two broad categories (Andersen, 2000). The first is ‘one best way’ of exercising leadership, that there is a particular set of characteristics which ‘good’ leaders should possess (Senior & Fleming 2006). The second that a range of leadership styles that should be applied differentially according to the situation in which leadership is required. Therefore, a leader’s behavior should be dependent upon the organizational situation prevailing (Beer and Nohria, 2000). Team leadership can be said that one of the cutting-edge approaches to leadership if the team agreed on the vision and goals (Carnall, 2003). For this leaders have to learn skills such as having the patience to share information, being able to trust others and to give up authority, and understanding when to intervene (Beer and Nohria, 2000).

Furthermore, Senior & Fleming (2006) also declare that during the process of organizational change, there is coexistence of two types of forces which are driving and resisting forces. They claim that in order to reduce or overcome resistance to change, it is necessary to identify the sources of such resistance. Thereafter, these can be addressed by making use of approaches such as education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, and negotiation and agreement, among others.The stages through which an organization goes as it forms, develops and matures sets out the different organizational practices required during each evolutionary phase. Hence, the leader should move along the selection, selecting the style that is most appropriate to the situation prevailing. In an organization’s most full stage, leadership styles are required that are flexible enough to change direction according to the complex, changing situations within the organization itself.

Reference:
Andersen, J. A, 2000, ‘Intuition in managers: are intuitive managers more effective?’ Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 46-67. (Online Proquest)

Beer, M. and Nohria, N, 2000 ‘Cracking the code of change’, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 133-41.(Online Proquest)

Carnall, C. A, 2003, ‘Managing Change in Organizations’, 4th edn, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Senior, B and Fleming J, 2006, The Leadership of Change, in Organizational change, Prentice Hall, London

It is known that the innovation is originated from those who contribute to work by employing initiative to search new thinking method and addressing identified problems. Therefore, it can be cultivated regardless of being hard to command. It is crucial to make sure of the strategic integrity among engineering, marketing, manufacturing, finance, and the other functions. It is indispensible for success to Create a spirit of high performance and a management mechanism of encouragement, motivation and inspiration. Leadership is the attractor taking the elements together and holding everything in place as the process proceeds along the way. Thus, product innovation is like a continuum. Completion may mean finishing off one NPD program and starting the other. Leading change indicates that innovation is a endless process.

A new-product development process is detailedly introduced in this passage. A standardized NPD comprises six processes. However, the author argued that the number of phases of an NPD process could be very different according to companies’ characteristics. The article gives some examples. For instance, new products need more processes and the higher risks are, the more complicated the approach must be adopted to make sure that all of the main phases are being executed. Therefore, this article is excellent to deliver these knowledge and clearly states that a good process is based on customer and stakeholder inputs and has an integrated, team-based method with activities flowing in parallel as far as is possible. It has been done very well.

One key point of this week’s lecture is the change communication wheel. Some practices are also done in the tutorial given by Steven. After discussing about CQU’s new site plan, we apply the change communication wheel to this case and devised in group our own thought. These practices really benefit us a lot. Through reading this article, some new approaches for innovation enriched my mind. For example, the six phases of NPD and six-sigma methodology can lead me to understand more about this week’s knowledge.

Reference:

Rainey, David L, 2005, New product development process and organisational aspects, in Product Innovation: leading change through integrated product development, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

Central Queensland University (CQU) 2008, HRMT 20019, Implementing Innovation and Changes, Innovation and Change, studyguide, Rockhampton.

Moreover, the article discussed the vertical and horizontal sources of power. Vertical sources of power comprise formal position, resources, control of decision premises, and network centrality. Generally speaking, managers at higher levels have more power than those at lower levels. Nevertheless, the power of low-level employees can be designed to increase to help the organization be more competitive. Horizontal power indicates that some departments with certain characteristics can also make more powerful than others. Such factors as dependency, resources, and non substitutability determine the influence of departments. Political tactics can be used by managers to assist departments to fulfill wanted consequences. These tactics include coalition building, expanded networks, and control of decision premises and so on. Some people doubtfully think political behavior will be used to benefit the individual but not the organization. However, politics is often indispensible to fulfill the legal destinations of a department or organization.

This article discusses the relationship among conflict, power and politics. It points out the differences existing within the organization is the origin of conflict and power is often used to resolve the conflicts. Politics sometimes also play an important role in dealing with conflicts. Most of the context in the article presents pretty well and logically. In general, there are two models comprising the rational model of organization and the political model of organization. The former assumes that organizations have specific destinations and that problems can be logically addressed. The latter assumes that the destinations of an organization are not specific or unanimous, which is the fundamental of this article. However, it can be argued that no assumption can work anywhere. This article only based on the latter, as such, is biased.

This article really assisted me a lot to digest the topic this week, for instances, the assumption presents the reason why the power and politics are used to resolve conflicts and where conflicts are from. The two sources of power help me understand further about the organization’s hierarchy and why some employees are granted more power to execute.

Reference:
Conflict, power and politics in Daft, R 2007, Organization theory and design, 9th edn, Thomson South-Western, New York.

This article lays emphasis on one concept – the Framework for change. The Framework for Change expresses presented the different change situations that the organization face, and provides the approaches that they are offered and the types of situations in which they can best be applied, so which rather than describing the most appropriate method to change as a competition between the planned and emergent approaches. Therefore, some methods for change such as planned and emergent methods have the disadvantages when the changing in the different situation. The Framework for Change expresses is the author’s main idea to present that one method should not be conditioned but flexible according to volatile and different situations.

The change management describing a number of approaches to managing change, change paths and change tools as well as contingency and system theories. The article states two concept called emergent and planned methods of change. They are related to each other. The framework assists me to connect each concept closer. I could associate the learned knowledge with the framework to change, which makes the new knowledge easier digestible.

Reference:

Burnes, B, 2004, A framework for change, in Managing Change, 4th ed., Prentice Hall

Therefore, Debowski (2006) argues that there are several factors that may impede or enhance learning and effectiveness for personal. These factors include individual characteristics, organizational factors, operational factors and the learning context, and the interaction. The employees were different in their approach to learning during the personality or traits. These individual factors determine how effectively these employees will embrace the new opportunities for reflection and critical thinking. Prior learning experiences play an important role as do time management and reflective skills. People’s learning capabilities and focus also depend on their motivation, career aspirations and commitment among other factors. The learning philosophy of the firm is one of the key organisational factors that impact upon learning. The style of leadership at the helm will promote or discourage learning. Management commitment and support towards learning and development will enable the learning culture to permeate the whole organization. Obviously, this has to be translated into practice (for instance funding resources) and not remain in the theoretical realm.Operational factors are also important to help employees adopt the learning culture.

Belasco (Debowski 2006) is of the view that learning should be a key facet of performance measurement and rewards systems. This will allow learning and development to become a priority for the organization, both for management and employees.The context is essential to promote learning. Top management has to recognize the benefits of learning and create the framework for adequate training to take place. Necessary resources have to be allocated towards employee training and development. The overall strategy must be carefully designed and not done in a haphazard way.

Reference:

Debowski, S, 2006, Learning and development in a knowledge setting, in Knowledge Management, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton

The human capital is to recruit and retain personnel with the best qualifications possible, given the nature of existing and potential tasks. Beside The human process advantage is more about creating preconditions for synergy effects. Thus the two elements may be prioritized differently. Moreover, the human resources management is also the important process for the organization strategic planning, because the human resources management forced on the recruitment, selection, and retention activity and very high individual rewards, beside foe the organization’ strategic is based on the best people, strong systems, and supportive cultures within the future organizational development planning. The personnel concept functions is starting point and organizational for HRM strategies and tactics, but also influences organizational design and efforts by employee who in the company.

However, the human resource management employed the people by recruiting and selecting that was not the main successful way to develop the organization. The main issues is the organization need to reduce the rate of the turnover and retain the employees stay in the organization. Alevesson(2004) presented that underlines the risks associated with highly qualified employees leaving the organization. Thus, it is important that the organizations’ top management secures the loyalty of key personnel as the organization is highly dependent on these talents.

According to the article, the success of KIFs was contingent upon how to create human capital or human process advantage directly(Alevesson 2004). The human recourse management is recruiting and adjusting employees to structures or cultures leading to synergy effects in the organization, which is the relationship of human resource management and strategy human resource management.Thus the strategy human resource management is the human recourse department how managed the employees to meet the organizational mission and vision for develop the organization’ future that links organizational structure, values, culture, quality commitment.

Reference:
Alevesson, M 2004,“Human Resources Management & Personnel Concepts, in Knowledge work and knowledge0intensive firms, Oxford University Press.

The type of creativity defined by the creative person, product and process, so the creativity measure based on the change of creative person, product and process to innovate. The creativity measures though the Tests of creative ability to evolved to measure intelligence and generally resemble the people in different type of the test. Moreover, training also is the once the method to increase creative ability.According to the reading, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) which have probably been used more widely than any others, and the responses can scored in four different ways and reflecting four components of creative thinking which are fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. Moreover, training also is the once the method to increase creative ability.

Furthermore, the product measure based on the difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of escaping from subjective judgments of products in person based measures has led many writers to recommend that creativity should be measured through characteristics of products.  Beside, the common strategy for assessing creativity is the direct measure of creative processes. The strategy processes based on the recruitment and idea elicitation techniques which are brainstorming, checklists, creative problem solving programmer.

Therefore, the innovation is the one of the important issue to improve the performance of the organization, and the creativity is the element of the innovation. The creativity based on the person, product and process to innovate. Thus, the creativity measure is test the quality of creativity ability of innovate process.

Chapter 2, ‘Enhancing creativity at work’ in King & Anderson 2003, Managing innovation and change: a critical guide for organizations, 2nd edn, Thomson, London.