DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance.

-          Organizational behaviour is the study of the many factors that have an impact on how individuals and groups respond to and act in organizations and how organizations manage their environments.

-          OB provides the knowledge base for understanding behaviour within organisations.

-          A field of study that specifically focuses on the impact that people have on organisational effectiveness and efficiency.

-          Organizational Behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

-          It does this by taking a system approach à it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the four levels – the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system

Organizational Behavior is the key aspect to maintain and enhance interaction levels amongst employees in the company. Other attributes like leadership, openness to discuss problems, challenge-initiative are all tied in to this base concept of Organizational Behavior to help the business achieve its strategic and in some cases business objectives. The proper definition of organizational behavior with its understanding and management has resulted in development of few key offshoots to the concept of Organizational Behavior.

What concepts make up the definition of Organization Behavior?

Organization Design - This is the simple framework of creating roles and formal reporting relationships for employees in an organization. An effective organization design is reflected in the joining letter which is handed over to a new employee. The joining letter would talk about his role, his immediate line manager and the processes which he would need to adhere to.

Organization Development - Every organization has a mission statement and the time when the organization formalizes the mission statement it may not have the resources or the expertise to execute the mission effectively. Organization Development involves the combined, planned effort of all the resources of the company to ensure that the company carries its mission forward. As defined by Richard Beckhard, organization development would involve a site-wide, planned effort from all the employees, with the top management intervening in the organization purposes.

Organizational empowerment - This is one of the buzzwords of organizational behavior principles in most of the companies which are evolving today. Organizational empowerment means the level of responsibility that an organization places on its employees at all levels so that decisions can be taken without any manager interference. The key is here though many organizations advocate this approach in text, most of them have a certain element of mentoring and guidance to their employees at all times.

Organizational engineering - This is a typical advancement of Organization development with the only difference that it takes a completely mathematical approach to organization development. The mathematical equations of the company's business model is studied and different people are inserted into the model based on formulas, and better still the outcomes are predicted from the people's roles. This is done to ensure that company's efficiency is increased and it gets more effective with its communication.

It is most important to understand that any definition of organization behavior would be incomplete without studying the change management curve of the employees. If you are a company planning to introduce some OB initiatives, you would need to ensure that the OB initiatives are transitioned out smoothly to the employees. This needs to be done very carefully because this may lead to a lot of disgruntled employees if enough care is not taken to transitioning the processes. If one had to define organizational behavior, it will be a set of principles followed by employees at all levels to ensure that the company meets its strategic objectives.

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Vodafone ZooZoos – A Successful Marketing Strategy

                                                          

ZooZoo, the new brand ambassador of Vodafone, has created a furore in the advertising industry. Zoozoos have been successful in giving Vodafone a makeover and establishing maximum brand presence. I consider it to be a perfect example of a well-laid out marketing strategy for the following reasons:

Vodafone chose the Indian Premier League 2 (IPL-2) as a platform to launch their advertisement, which proved to be a great marketing strategy. Cricket is considered to be a religion in India, and Zoozooz captured attention of nearly two billion people during the IPL. People eagerly waited for breaks between matches to see more stories about Zoozoo.

Zoozoos are small pseudo-animated characters with big egg-shaped head, round belly but extremely thin arms and legs. It was a fresh and innovative concept and Vodafone wonderfully promoted their services by creating different stories featuring Zoozoos. The charm of the Zoozoo was itself a great self-marketing strategy and they were instant success among masses. Within few days, Zoozooz created a huge audience for them, giving a boost to the Vodafone brand.

People were already in awe of those cute and lovable characters, but the curiosity heightened when Vodafone disclosed that Zoozooz were not animated, rather humans were playing those characters. People were even more hungry to know about their favorite Zoozooz.

In the second phase, after the release of these ads, Vodafone promoted these characters on social media sites, which was another wise decision. Zoozoo fan clubs are there on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Orkut, Twitter, and many more, where they have a huge followings.

Now Vodafone has announced to launch the Zoozoo goodies like zoozoo toys, zoozoo mugs, zoozoo keychains, zoozoo t-shirts, etc. Zoozooz have themselves become a brand and it will be interesting to see how Vodafone uses this concept in future to promote their services.

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FUNCTION OF MIS

Mis is acronym of management information system which can do collection, transmission, storage, processing, maintenance and use of information, composed of human, computer and other peripheral equipments. As an emerging science, the main task of it is to strengthen the information management of enterprises by taking advantage of modern computer and network communication technology to the largest extent, and set up the correct data based on the research of human resource, financial resource, equipments, technology, etc. owned by enterprises, and provide timely various of processed and systemized information data to the manager so as to make correct decisions and improve continuously the management level and economic benefits of enterprises.

At present, MIS of enterprises has been the main resort to reform technology and improve the management level. The office and management of a enterprise will be towards a effective, rapid and paperless direction. MIS is generally used for system decision-making. For instance, enterprise employee can make use of MIS to find out problems that need to be solved urgently and feedback in time to the upper managers in order to make them understand the current progress and its shortages. The main functions of MIS are as follows?

1. Data Processing

It includes the collection, transmission, storage, processing and output of data. It simplifies the statistics and reduces to the lowest cost by supplying an unified format.

1. Function of Prediction

It predicts the future situation by applying modern mathematics, statistics or simulation.

1. function of plan
2. 
   

It arranges reasonably the plans of each functional department in accordance with the restrictions afforded by enterprises and provides the appropriate planning reports according to different management.

1. Function of Control

It monitors and inspects the operation of plans and comprises with the differences between operation and plan in accordance with the data afforded by every functional department, and be assistant to managers to control timely each method by analyzing the reasons why the differences comes into being.

1. 
   
2. Function of Assistance

It derivates instantly the best answers of related problems by applying to various of mathematics’ mode and analyzing a plentiful data stored in computers in the hope of using rationally human resource, financial resource, material resource and information resource for relative abundant economic benefits

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DISADVANTAGES OF MIS

Disadvantages of management information system


Unemployment 
While information technology may have streamlined the business process it has also crated job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing. This means that a lot of lower and middle level jobs have been done away with causing more people to become unemployed. 
Privacy 
Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to email hacking, people are now worried about their once private information becoming public knowledge. 

Lack of job security 
Industry experts believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure. 

Dominant culture 
While information technology may have made the world a global village, it has also contributed to one culture dominating another weaker one. For example it is now argued that US influences how most young teenagers all over the world now act, dress and behave. Languages too have become overshadowed, with English becoming the primary mode of communication for business and everything else.


Power failure, computer viruses and hackers are the inherent problems of using computerized systems


Once data been input into the system, automatically the output are obtained hence the data being input needs to be validated for accuracy and completeness, we should not forget concept of GIGO (Garbage In(Input) Garbage out ( Output) and


Accounting system not properly set up to meet the requirement of the business due to badly programmed or inappropriate software or hardware or personnel problems can caused more havoc and


Danger of computer fraud if proper level of control and security whether internal and external are not properly been instituted.

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ADVANTAGES OF MIS

ADVANTAGES

Better Planning and Control

Management information systems have changed the dynamics of running businesses efficiently. Decentralization is one of the biggest advantages; it allows monitoring of operations at low levels and frees up resources for departmental managers to devote time to strategic activities. Coordination of specialized projects and activities is much better and decision makers in the organization are aware of issues and problems in all departments. Another advantage of MIS is that it minimizes information overload, which can be quite common with conventional businesses in the modern era. 

Aid Decision Making

MIS has to be designed and managed in such way that it aggregates information, monitors the company's activities and operations and enhances communication and collaboration among employees. This ensures better planning for all activities and better ways to measure performance, manage resources and facilitate compliance with industry and government regulations. Control helps in forecasting, preparing accurate budgets and providing the tools and vital information to employees, top management and business partners.

Facilitates planning 

MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound decision - making . Due to increase in the size and complexity of organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of operations.

Minimizes information overload 

MIS change the larger amount of data in to summarized form and there by avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with detailed facts.

MIS Encourages Decentralization 

Decentralization of authority is possibly when there is a system for monitoring operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring performance and making necessary change in the organizational plans and procedures.

It brings Co ordination 

MIS facilities integration of specialized activities by keeping each department aware of the problem and requirements of other departments. It connects all decision centers in the organization .

It makes control easier 

MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance . The used computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and reduced the cost .

MIS assembles, process , stores , Retrieves , evaluates and Disseminates the information.

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The Product Life Cycle (PLC)

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is based upon the biological life cycle. For example, a seed is planted (introduction); it begins to sprout (growth); it shoots out leaves and puts down roots as it becomes an adult (maturity); after a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and die out (decline).

In theory it's the same for a product. After a period of development it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilises and the product becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn.

However, most products fail in the introduction phase. Others have very cyclical maturity phases where declines see the product promoted to regain customers.

Strategies for the differing stages of the Product Life Cycle.

Introduction.

The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution.

Growth.

Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise.

Maturity.

Those products that survive the earlier stages tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media.

Decline.

At this point there is a downturn in the market. For example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have changed. There is intense price-cutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting.

Problems with Product Life Cycle.

In reality very few products follow such a prescriptive cycle. The length of each stage varies enormously. The decisions of marketers can change the stage, for example from maturity to decline by price-cutting. Not all products go through each stage. Some go from introduction to decline. It is not easy to tell which stage the product is in. Remember that PLC is like all other tools. Use it to inform your gut feeling

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MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM....????

MIS (management information systems) is a general term for the computer systems in an enterprise that provide information about its business operations. It's also used to refer to the people who manage these systems. Typically, in a large corporation, "MIS" or the "MIS department" refers to a central or centrally-coordinated system of computer expertise and management, often including mainframe systems but also including by extension the corporation's entire network of computer resources.

In the beginning, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term "MIS" arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management, and database retrieval applications.

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