The article I found is called GM, Ford Step Up Efforts to Reduce Costs in Europe. GM’s Opel subsidiary in Germany has become the largest European employer and wants employees to work longer without a raise. The Jaguar unit in the United Kingdom is planning to cut productions by 15,000 cars. Jaguar is being effected by the US dollars weakness against the British pound and the euro, which undercuts the profits for European companies that export mist of there products to the US. Opel wants to move its company out of Germany to lower wage regions because they have high labor cost. The want to extent their workweek from 35 hours a week to 40 hours a week and they want to freeze works pay. Mercedes Benz was thinking about giving their workers a 2.8% raise but didn’t do it instead they are making their workers work longer hours with no additional pay. The general workers union in the United Kingdom called the production cuts “a tragedy” but said that they have received assurances that there would be no job cuts as a result of production cuts.
This article touches upon many topics we had discussed in class, one is job design. The companies have had to come up with a plan to cut losses. They had to ask themselves what will be done, who will do it, how will it be done, and where will it be done. Their biggest goals here are productions and cut down on losses. In the case of Opel, the answers to those questions are simple. Producing cars is what will be done, factory works will do it, its will be done by extending the workweek from 35 hours a week to 40 hours a week without additional pay, and it will be done in eastern Europe or a lower wage region. This will lower their costs and they will still be able to produce the same about if not more cars.
Another topic this article touched on is need for location decision. The key here is cost of doing business. They need to look at long term commitments and cost; identifying locations were lower wage regions are, adding new factories and the move. The first stage is to minimize transportation costs, labor factors and regional taxes, regulations and trade barriers. Opel wants to move to another place they have to see the advantages and disadvantages of bringing raw materials to their new factory.
Henry Ford and his engineers designed several automobiles, each one designated by a letter of the alphabet: these included the small, four cylinder Model N (which sold for $500), and the more luxurious six-cylinder Model K (which sold poorly for $2500). In October 1908, ...
The United States recession (which lead to a world recession), began in 1997 and significantly impacted the United States automobile industry during the recession period. The United States automobile industry is still reeling from the effects of the recession throughout the period of economic recovery that continues today. According to Chu and Su, “In this credit-driven recession, one of the hardest hit sectors was the automotive industry, along with the housing and financial markets. Chrysler and General Motors were pushed into bankruptcy; and 276,000 jobs in the automobile and parts industry were destroyed, a whopping 36 percent of the total employment in the sector”.
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
Societal attitudes toward adoption have made great advances since the 1900s, both in the understanding of the complexities of adoption and the acceptance of adoption as a positive path for children.
To be the number one aerospace company in the world and among the premier industrial concerns in terms of quality, profitability and growth
The adoption process got pretty crazy as a result of the World Wars. Numerous children were left orphaned and homeless. These children were in desperate need of homes. Because of this, there was an uprising in adoptions. The more uprising that occurred, the more legislation regulated adoptions.
While international adoption may seem like a dream, easy to accomplish for some, it is a dream that has extensive obstacles for others. It regularly involves requirements that need to be met, fees that have to be paid, and tedious processes that often end in an unsuccessful adoption. Often times, these aspects of international adoption are too much and discourage willing adoptive parents. This results in a decrease in international adoption rates, increasing the number of children who are living in orphanages and government institutions. If the process, fees, and requirements were made more streamlined, more people would be willing to adopt internationally. This would provide more children with a pe...
The automobile industry began with Henry Ford’s production of the Model T in the early 1900’s. With the creation of the assembly line, cars became cheaper and quicker to produce, thus making them affordable for many people. There were originally 500 auto manufacturers. By 1908, there were only 200; and in 1917 only 23 remained. This vast reduction was due to large amounts of consolidation within the industry.
"Introduction to Issues in Adoption: Current Controversies." Issues in Adoptions 2004. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Nov 2011.
Ford’s production plants rely on very high-tech computers and automated assembly. It takes a significant financial investment and time to reconfigure a production plant after a vehicle model is setup for assembly. Ford has made this mistake in the past and surprisingly hasn’t learned the valuable lesson as evidence from the hybrid revolution their missing out on today. Between 1927 and 1928, Ford set in motion their “1928 Plan” of establishing worldwide operations. Unfortunately, the strategic plan didn’t account for economic factors in Europe driving the demand for smaller vehicles. Henry Ford established plants in Europe for the larger North American model A. Their market share in 1929 was 5.7% in England and 7.2% in France (Dassbach, 1988). Economic changes can wreak havoc on a corporation’s bottom line and profitability as well as their brand.
There is no standardized definition of organizational cultures. However, most of the writers of organizational cultures would probably agree that organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values and behaviours of the group. Geert Hofstede (1991) has discussed the characteristics of organizational cultures are:
“Understanding Child Development & the Impact of Adoption”. 2009: Child Welfare Information Gateway. Web. February 25, 2014
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...