Foreign Market Entry and Diversification Essay Example for Free

Foreign Market Entry and Diversification Essay Create An Argument For Diversification Of Your Business That Will Be Presented To The Board Of Directors Or Business Investors. Diversification is going to be the key to the longevity of our label. Our smallest competitors, Simply Fashion and Cato, offer shoes and accessories; while our largest competitors, Lane Bryant and Avenue have begun to offer minimal exercise wear. â€Å"†¦diversifying entrants pose a bigger threat in increasing rivalry and challenging incumbents’ market share†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Klein Lien, 2009, p. 299). Right now, Lane Bryant is the leader in diversified product lines, although our competitors offer a variety of products in plus size fashion. Our company will improve on quality in order to become a threat to the competitors. If we do not diversify, we will quickly become irrelevant in the market, like our smaller competitors. If we plan to succeed and increase longevity we must diversify and improve upon what our competitors offer. Develop A Strategy For Diversification Indicating The Products And Industries For The Diversification And How Synergies May Be Gained From The Diversified Activity. As a way to increase popularity and customer base loyalty, marketing, research and development will work with designers and distributors on a costume accessories line for plus size women. Currently plus size women are hard pressed to find bracelets for the larger wrist, rings for the larger finger and necklaces that fall where they are supposed to. Lane Bryant is the leader in accessories but they are extremely expensive at twenty to thirty dollars for a ring or bracelet. Costume jewelry is not an item that is meant to last forever. Metals tarnish, plastic’s color fades after repeated use. Our company can come in and offer the correct size accessories at the correct price. Claire’s is a leading accessories line for average women. They are successful because they offer an extremely wide variety of accessories at varying price levels but they do not have many pieces for larger fit. They do offer extenders for necklaces and some bracelets but the extenders are generic and most times do not match the jewelry purchased. We see a synergy with them as a way of increasing sales and market for both companies. Another area for diversification is the exercise clothing line. Collaboration with Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig will put us ahead of our biggest competitor. The need for properly fitted, comfortable exercise clothing is great enough for our company to corner this market. The collaboration will give the weight losing industry a chance to enter another market. Identify And Discuss The Foreign Market That The Company Should Enter And Discuss The Strategy It Should Use To Enter The Market. According to the demographic population statistics of 2011, pu blished by MINTEL (Mintel Group Ltd., 2011), England has the next highest population of plus size women. Almost 25% of the women wear size 18 and over. Nearly 40% of the female population in the UK wears size 16 and over. With these demographics, our company plans to enter the global market in those countries. They have seen an increase in the sale of plus size clothing but the numbers are still small, leaving the industry open for infiltration. Plus size attire only accounted for 17% of total women’s clothing sales in the European market in 2011. The strategy for entering the market will start with opening the online boutiques. As popularity increases we can look into established a brick and mortar location. The store will be a representation of our American locations but also blend with the local atmosphere. â€Å"Purchasing locally [is] a key strategy as it pleases the local authorities and meets the needs of the local consumers. European retailers are more likely to export retail formats that add value by catering to the needs and tastes of the local market, they are likely to enter foreign markets that are developing and are likely to scale up profitably, keeping pace with the economic development of the market place† (Bell, Lal, Salmon, 2004, p. 312). We will establish relationships with local designers and fabric retailers. The building of this relationship will help us gain trust and loyalty within the local economy. Discuss The Challenges That Company May Face In The Foreign Market, And How It Might Respond Strategically To Minimize The Impact Of These Challenges. Even though all the research shows the industry being ripe for new entries, the target market is a challenge. Plus size women don’t necessarily want to be plus size women. The ones who wear sizes under 18 will shop in regular stores if possible because once they start shopping in a specialty store they have to admit facts to themselves that they may not want to address. Plus size figures are not always bigger replicas of the average sized female. With being larger there sometimes are different shapes that have to be accounted for when buying clothing. The best way to combat that would be to align ourselves with the different coalitions that are forming in the European to help understand and beat obesity. We could donate time, supplies and some proceeds from special campaigns to their cause. Our company will avoid being seen as an enabler to obesity. â€Å"Obesity and overweight among children in Europe is also associated with the socio-economic status of their parents, especially their mothers. Furthermore, cross-country comparisons show the prevalence of childhood overweight is linked to a Member State’s degree of income inequality or relative poverty† (Robertson, Lobstein, Knai, 2007, p. 9). Since studies have shown that obesity is mostly a socioeconomic problem, we can take on a â€Å"Be Beautiful Being You† motto. We can work with local groups and organizations to bring awareness to the community. Helping to create positive self-image and awareness of affordable healthy choices will be a goal of our compa ny. Create A Scenario When It Would Not Make Sense For The Company To Diversify Or Expand Into A Foreign Market. Provide Support For Your Rationale. The clothing industry as a whole has been branching into China because of their expanding economy and large population. According to Business of Fashion, China has seen a 33% increase in the purchasing of luxury fashion goods (Harilela, 2012). Normally, this would make it a prime target for global expansion for our company. However, China is country where our company would not likely prosper. China has only seen an increase in waistlines in the past few decades. Even with the increase in size, the numbers are enough to validate entry into their economy. â€Å"The obese are roughly one out of 70 people in China, as opposed to one out of three in America† (Suarez, 2010) Even though those statistics are from 2010, they still warn against expansion into their market. Assess How The Company Will Create A Business Environment Conducive To Ethical Behavior. Ethical business practices will start in upper management and pass down to lower level employees. The company handbook will have a section on the importance of ethical policies and how to conduct business as such. Employee interactions will involve speaking truthfully, taking responsibility for one’s actions and learning to be upfront about opinions. Customer service ethical standards will include providing quality products at fair pricing, being honest about features of the clothing and the floor sales clerk will not be allowed to give judgment on customer apparel choices. Employees will be encouraged and required to report safety issues, theft, harassment issues or any other work related problem. Our company will be committed to conducting business in a way that meets the needs of our present market goals without compromising the company brand image. Works Cited Bell, D. E., Lal, R., Salmon, W. J. (2004). Globalization of Retailing. In J. A. Quelch, The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders (pp. 290-312). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Harilela, D. (2012, April 8). The Top 20 Movers, Shakers and Decision-Makers in China Fashion. Retrieved from The Business of Fashion: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2012/04/the-top-20-movers-shakers-and-decision-makers-in-china-fashion-2.html Klein, P. G., Lien, L. B. (2009). Diversification, Industry, Structure, and Firm Strategy: An Organizational Economics Perspective. Economic Institutions of Strategy Advance in Strategic Management, 299. Mintel Group Ltd. (2011). Fifth of Brits are Plus Size but clothing selection is thin on the ground. Mintel Group Ltd. Robertson, A., Lobstein, T., Knai, C. (2007). Obesity and socio-economic groups in Europe: Evidence. European Commission. Suarez, R. (2010, June 1). Reporters Notebook: Obesity on the Rise in China. Retrieved from PBS News Hour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/06/reporters-notebook-obesity-rising-in-china.html

Asteroids Essay -- essays research papers

Asteroids In our solar system today there are over 30,000 asteroids flying around in all direction colliding with other asteroids and planets, without a care about the destruction they might convey. Our planet Earth is caught right in the middle of all of this action and is liable to entire extinction of any life forms on the planet if a large enough asteroid crosses its path. Any single asteroid has the possibility to erase thousands of years of history and wipeout the human race, as we know it. Asteroids are large or small chunks of rock and metal flying around space up to speeds of 80 000 km/h. These chunks were believed to have formed millions of years ago during the "big bang". These rocks didn’t form any planets and were stuck floating around space on their own or in the gravitation of the asteroid belt. This asteroid belt is approximately 300 million miles from the Sun and it contains thousands of asteroids; some being miles in diameter. Another theory of the formation of asteroids is that a planet between Mars and Jupiter once existed and after many years it exploded into thousands of pieces that are still revolving around the sun in the form of an asteroid belt. Other asteroids are formed when large meteors collide with large asteroids creating more small ones. These meteors can also collide with planets breaking off chunks of the crust into space. Ceres is believed to be the biggest asteroid that was in space at one point in time. Ceres was believed to be 600 miles wide, making up 1/3 of the total mass of all asteroids. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered and was found in 1801. There are two main types of asteroids; the first dominates the outer part of the belt and are found to be rich in carbon, the second group are located in the inside of the belt and are found to be rich in minerals. The average temperature of the surface of an asteroid is approximately -73 degrees C. Many people don’t know that over 50,000 small asteroids called meteors hit the Earth every year. These meteors are the outside layer of larger asteroids that have been chipped off or are the surface of other planets that have detached from their positions when hit with larger asteroids. Asteroids sometimes align with Earth when meteors flying through space collide with other asteroids in the belt causing pieces to break off and head in all directions. ... ... wide and found within 8 million kilometers of Earth. It is very probable that a large asteroid will hit the Earth in the future because of the planet’s past experience with asteroid collisions. Scientists estimate that an asteroid more than 800 m in diameter hits the Earth every million years and a smaller one hits every century. An asteroid bigger than 1 km would mean the end of about 30% of the World’s population. This size of an asteroid would be the equivalent explosion to 2 million Hiroshima bombs. This explosion would cause destruction of all living creatures within a hundred mile radius as well as blocking off the Sun with dust and rock particles for weeks or even months. Asteroids are probably the deadliest force that our solar system can produce, one strike could put man back in the dark ages and would kill almost the entire population of our planet. It is for this reason that scientists should focus more on understanding asteroids and research more into the defense of our planet. At the moment we only know where a fraction of the asteroids out there are. The asteroid that could destroy our planet could only be a year away and we don’t even know it exists.

Tracking System

IntroductionThe Computer nowadays is a basic need for businesses or companies. Ithelps a lot in such a way that it makes work more progressive and productive. It isan important thing that a company or small business should have because it helps alot in many ways such as organizing, storing and manipulating data. Havingcomputer programs may help a company grow bigger and be competitive in theflow of the business world. The companies nowadays uses computer literate andvery competitive in the business. Our payroll system is basically an application program, used to manage the records of the employees working in the company.The payroll process typically includes calculating employee pay, recording payroll transactions and determining and paying payroll taxes. A company must have in place a timekeeping system that accurately reflects the hours put in by nonexempt employees as well as the regular salary payments for exempt workers. Employers typically withhold federal income tax from emplo yee earnings; at the end of the year, they must report all wages, tips and other compensation paid. Companies also must withhold Social Security and Medicare contributions from employees' wages and pay a matching amount.Statement of the ProblemSymmetrikos Payroll System. It includes these following features Add employees record Edit and delete employees record Save the Pay Slip of each employee Compute the Weekly Salary, Cash advances, the rate per day and deductions such as SSS.Objective of the studyTo minimize the manual checking of each daily time records of the employee To develop a module that will generate essential reports. To develop a module that will monitor the status of employee’s deductions such as cash advances and charges through SSS.Scope and Limitation of the studyThis study limits only to the proposed enhancement Computerized Payroll System of Symmetrikos. A system which can only be accessed by authorized person. It does not support network topology implemen tation, online program or online transaction.ScopesImproved Services – it will increase employee satisfaction thus provide the quality output of their work. Better Performance – It is an objective of our proposed system to provide better performance which is managed by providing Desired flexibility, Fast response and Ability to support changes. Ability to maintain the quality of services Efficient GUI – One of the objectives of the proposed system is to provide a user to work on clicks and make the information transfer possible with the most common I/O devices Elimination Of Running Cost – We are going to develop the proposed system with an objective to eliminate the running cost by overcoming the continuous stationery expenses, manual storage need, and extra staff in the information resource department of the Organization. 2. LimitationsThe system cannot generate report of appraisals and evaluation reports of the employee because it was not included in t he system. The system will only be used for payroll transactions by the company specifically Symmetrikos Construction Firm. It will not be employed in any other company This system will generate more time if the rate of each employee vary differently.

Strategic Advantages of ERP in Pakistan - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2943 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Impact of Organizational Culture on the achievement of Strategic Advantages of ERP in Pakistan ABSTRACT This study looks at the relationship that organizational culture has with the achievement of Strategic advantages from implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. A sample of 30 organizations that implemented ERP was used to test the hypotheses. A competing values approach to measuring organizational culture was used to quantitatively measure an organizations culture profile. The results show that the organizations culture is significantly related to the achievement of strategic advantages from implementing ERP 1. Introduction This paper studies the relationship between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and organizational Culture. ERP is buzz word now days with every company implementing from different models coined by different vendors in order to stay in the competition and to ensure that its operations are efficient and effective. Through ERP the organizations are able to achieve low costs of procurement, production, inventory distribution etc hence streamlines whole value chain that includes various primary secondary activities. These are pivotal in making any organization successful and taking it ahead of competition. Furthermore higher turnovers, reduced cycle times, inventory levels and financial operations can be given a face-lift to meet the challenges of the modern global recession the world is observing. ERP refer to the integrated way of carrying out all or major / core operations of the company. Organizations now regard ERP as a vital tool for the enhancement of their business operations by implementing most of its functions if not all of their processes under a single information system in an endeavor to benefit from the strategic advantages that ERP offers. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Strategic Advantages of ERP in Pakistan" essay for you Create order Organizational culture is a vital notion in organizational analysis. In past few years, there has been a lot of focus on the development of organizational cultures that are conducive of achieving better results and higher performance motivational levels of the employees. Organizational culture can be described as an abstract composite of assumptions, values, and artifacts shared by its members [that] can be reliably represented by the valueswhich drive its members attitudes and activities (Howard, 1998, p. 234). The model proposed in this study advocates that there is an essential connection between an organizations culture and the achievement of strategic advantages from ERP. A Competing Values approach to measuring organizational culture is used to provide an empirical measure for an organizations culture (Quin and Spreitzer, 1991). The competing values approach provides a profile of four cultural archetypes occupied by a particular organization. These archetypes are group, hierar chical, developmental and rational cultures. The combination of the archetypes describes the organizations culture profile. The primary question this study attempts to answer is how does Organizational cultural profiles affects the achievement of strategic advantages of ERP. 2. Literature review: This segment will appraise the pertinent Literature touching ERP and Organizational Culture. 2.1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is relatively a new concept however now a days almost every organization ranging from small to large enterprise, devotes a major portion of its developmental budgets on the implementation of ERP software. ERP is not merely software but an approach of carrying out business operations in the modern times where technology plays a decisive role in making an organization a success story or failure. However An ERP software system can be described as a set of integrated business applications, or modules, to carry out most business functions, including inventory control, general ledger accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, material requirements planning, order management and human resources, among others. (Martin et al., 1999). ERP is a technique to bring all of an organizations data and IS /IT resources under a single Information system (Oliver, 1999). The author affirms that ERP systems evolved to help organizations manage their information t hrough-out the Company, from the plant to the back office, and or the front office. (Oliver, 1999, pg. 12). ERP intends to integrate its core if not all of an organizations processes under a single ERP system. The processes can be seen in terms of a value chain (Porter, 1985), which connects the suppliers to the organization to the customers. For example, imagine a system where the customer orders a product over the Internet (ecommerce). As soon as the customer places the order, it is automatically sent to the manufacturing department, while at the same time sent to the accounting department for billing- The use of materials by the manufacturing department depletes the stock, therefore a parts order is sent automatically to the supplier when reorder points are reached for replenishment of the stock. In traditional systems, time would be required for the sending of the messages between departments, for the reordering of the parts, and the billing of the customer. ERP intends to automate these systems to achieve a number of strategic advantages- Implementation of ERP software can allow an organization certain strategic advantages (Radding, 1999, Stein 1998). The literature tells us that organizations can benefit from greater flexibility, increased efficiency (Radding, 1999), improved communication, Lower operating costs, increased revenue (Oliver, 1999). Reduced cycle times, better collaboration and higher profit margins (Stein, 1998). These strategic advantages affect not only the organization, but can affect all members of an organizations value chain. ERP is a system that seeks to unite all of a value chains disparate processes. An organizations value chain represents all of the different processes that involve organizational resources and that are needed to support the organizations operations. Porter(1985) developed a model of an organizations value chain. This model of the value chain contains 9 processes; 5 primary processes, and 4 support processes. The organizations primary processes involve the production and delivery of the organizations products to the consumer (Bergeron, 1991). The processes involved in the primary activity are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and customer service. The organizations secondary business processes represent the support processes for the primary activities and are, administrative coordination and support, human resource management, technology development, and procurement of resources. Implementation of ERP systems where carried a number of strategic nature of benefits, on the other hand it bears extreme risks. The growing numbers of Unsuccessful stories have compelled managers to take a deep look into the causes of it. ERP tries to push the logic that the system has which is conflicting with the Business. It may sometimes also lead to integration where decentralization fragmentation may best suite the organization. Furthermore, ERP may force the organization to go for generic processes than customization. Therefore ERP has to go along with technology and culture (Davenport, 1998). In contemporary organizations the data generation takes place at scattered places and the magnitude of the data is huge. Therefore a real time access to the data becomes imperative for the data in deal with such complex nature of information. ERP aligns all the information into various functions like finance, operations, sales, Customer relation etc subject to the nature of business an organization is into. Enterprise resource planning system (ERP), as a type III IS innovation, has strategic Significance for the organization due to their integration into the core business processes or strategies can directly impact the firms performance (Swanson 1994; Sambamurthy et al. 2003; Sample 1998). Consequently, many companies have started to develop strategy focusing on information technologies, with ERP adoption being a critical thrust (Bharadwaj 2000; Powell and Dent-Micallef 1997; Robey et al. 2002). on the other hand, whereas the firm is on the lookout for competitive advantages by adopting this sophisticated information system, the tangible experiences have reveal ambiguity some organization are able to reap the true benefits of ERP whereas on the other hand majority of the firms face losses and failed to achieve the desired level of strategic and tactical benefits. (Scott and Vessey 2002). According to the survey conducted by Deloitte, the success rate of ERP implementation is less than 20%. Hence it is important for researcher to unlock the mystery of benefit realization in ERP adoption and theorize the important predictors effect on ERP implementation practice (Brown and Vessey 2003). Other than strategic benefit, ERP also contributes toward making an organizational structure more flatter flexible, enabling organization to streamline their management structures and more democratic organization. On the other hand it also involve the centralization of control over information and the standardization of processes, which are attributes more consistent with hierarchical command and control organization with uniform cultures (Davenport, 1998). 2.2 Organizational culture: Culture can be seen from a number of different levels. Of interest to business are the concepts of national culture and organizational culture. National culture is important due to a more global economy where communication technicalities have begun to evolve. It is also important to the study of information systems technology and management. For example, Watson et al. (1994) looked at national culture as king a dimension, in a study looking at Group Support Systems success. This experimental study involved looking at the differences between groups from the U.S. and Singapore. For the majority of the business Literature on culture the level of analysis has dropped to the organization. The importance of studying an organizations culture is, like ERP and BPR, a fairly new concept- An organizations culture can be defined by a number of constructs, such as the symbols, language, ideology, beliefs, rituals, and myths that affect an individuals behavior (Pettigrew, 1979). According to Pettigrew (1979), the culture constructs exist to provide some form of commitment to the established order. Hofstede et al. (1990) proposes a model of culture that is made up of values and practices. The practices reflect member beliefs about symbols, heroes and myths. In an exploratory analysis, Hofstede et aI. (1990) found three factors affecting the values, yet, the core of organizational culture was represented by six dimensions of organizational practices. The dimensions represent opposing ideologies as to what constitutes proper practices. Using the dimensions of organizational practices, Hofstede (1998) identified 3 distinct subcultures within 131 different work groups. The three subcultures represented include a professional subculture, an administrative subculture, and a cus tomer interface subculture. Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) developed a quantitative measure of organizational effectiveness, which was later successfully used to study organization culture (see Kalliath et al., 1999, Howard, 1998, Quinn and Spreitzer, 199 1, Zammuto and Krakower, 199 1, Yeung et al., 1991). Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) exploratory study revealed that organizational effectiveness cm be represented by three distinct dimensions, a focus dimension (internal vs. external point of view), a structure dimension (flexibility vs. control orientation) and a means vs. ends dimensions. The authors call the resulting approach the Competing Values Approach to measuring organizational culture. The model in figure 2 represents the competing values approach. In figure one, each quadrant represents an ideal type of culture. A particular organization need not be classified exclusively as having one type of culture, but can be considered as containing elements from the four culture types, yet one type may be dominant (Quinn and Spreitzer,1991, Cameron and Freeman, 1991, Yeung et al., 1991). Each culture type is measured using four items, which are aggregated to achieve a culture profile- The core values of the Group culture are belonging, trust and participation, which are motivated by factors of attachment, cohesiveness and membership (Denison and Spreitzer, 1991). Like the group culture, the developmental culture also emphasis flexibility but focuses its attention on the external environment. Productivity, performance, goal fulfillment and achievement are the important f actors for the rational culture. These cultures emphasize the pursuit and attainment of well-defined objectives. Finally, for the hierarchical culture, the focus is on the logic of the internal Organization and the emphasis is on stability- (Denison and Spreitzer, 1991, pg. 6) As the authors state, the motivating factors for this quadrant include security, order, rules, and regulations. A number of studies have been done, looking at and validating this framework. Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) performed a multitrait-multi-method analysis as well as multidimensional scaling on two competing values instruments (one using an ipsative scale measure, the other using a likert type scale measure), The authors found evidence for both convergent and discriminant validity. Zammuto and Krakower (1991) looked for relationships between culture and other organizational variables including, centralization, moral, administrator credibility, conflict, strategic orientation and culture strength- Authors state that evidence for construct validity exists due to the correlation of the competing values measure of cultur e and the other variables stated. Yeung et al. (1991) studied the competing values measure of culture in relation to organizational performance, culture strength and human resource practices- In a cluster analysis, the authors found that organizations from their study could be classified into 5 distinct culture types (or profiles). More recently, the competing values framework was again validated in two more studies (see Howard, 1998, Kalliath, 1999). The next section will look at some of the literature on assimilation and organizational culture change. Denison (1996) gave another perspective of culture by trying to research whether organizational culture and organizational climate were two different points of views or just a matter of perception. He further said that there are similarities differences at the time same time. Measurement of organizational culture is usually carried through qualitative analysis and deals with individuals set of beliefs, shared norms perception. Organizational climate on the other hand is measured through quantitative methods like questionnaire and print outs etc. Other factors also helped to differentiate these two topics in the literature. Culture researchers were more anxious with the progress of social systems over time (Mirvis Sales, 1990; Mohr, 1982; Pettigrew, 1979; Rohlen, 1974; Schein, 1985, 1990; Van Maanen, 1979), whereas climate researchers were generally less concerned with evolution but more concerned with the impact that organizational systems have on groups and individuals (Ekvall, 1987; Joyce Slocum, 1984; Koyes DeCotiis, 1991). The research also addressed to where does this organizational culture climate originates. Chatman (1989) says In order for researchers to understand and predict behavior, they must consider both person and situation factors and how these factors interact. Even though organization researchers have developed interactional models, many have overemphasized either person or situation components and most have failed to consider the effects that persons have on situations. Using a Q-sort methodology, individual value profiles are compared to organizational value profiles to determine fit and to predict changes in values, norms, and behaviors. By this we understand that both the organization individuals beliefs norms compliments each other and have an impact on over organizational environment which people and policies constitutes. Therefore the significance of any single factor can never be underestimated while evaluating the type of profile organization maintains in terms of its culture. Organizational effectiveness have long been a very vital area for the researchers to determine the causal relationship of organizational effectiveness higher level productivity with several variables. Among them organizational culture have well been under the consideration by the researchers. The increase in the research The intensification of research on organizational effectiveness has led to the formulation of theories about factors within an organization that can make a difference in performance. Organizational culture is one such variable that has received much attention in organizational behavior literature (Amsa 1986; Hofstede 1986; Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv and Sanders 1990; Jelinek, Smircich and Hirsch 1983; Kilman, Saxton and Serpa 1985; Ouchi 1981; Owens 1987; Schein 1990; Trice and Beyer 1984). This attention is mainly because researchers has postulated that cultural factors play a key role in determining levels of organizational outcomes. A common hypothesis about this r ole suggests that if an organization possesses strong culture by exhibiting a well-integrated and effective set of specific values, beliefs, and behavior patterns, then it will perform at a higher level of productivity (Dennison 1984). The development of theory to guide the definition of organizational culture, therefore, is of primary importance to improving organizational performance, espe- cially because the variables which comprise culture have been postulated to be under the control of organizational leaders (Deal and Kennedy 1982, Ouchi 1981, Owens 1987, Siepert and Likert 1973). Despite concern with achieving improved organizational productivity through fo- cusing on the development of cohesive organizational culture, determining the parameters of this construct has been problematic. The literature on organizational culture taps essential ideas, but the theory and technology to utilize the theory in improving organizations have remained fuzzy (Mackenzie 1986). As Trice and Be yer (1984) have argued, previous research on organizational culture has tended to focus on single, discrete elements of culture, while ignoring the multidimensional nature of culture, that is, a construct composed of several intimately interrelated variables (Schein 1990). Another problem has been that researchers are still not sure whether the association between culture and organizational performance reflects a cause-effect type of relationship (Saffold 1988). In fact, researchers have not really identified what specific variables comprise an effective organizational culture, nor have they provided convincing empirical evidence to suggest that if leaders in organizations increased the amount of time and quality of energy devoted to developing a particular type of organizational culture, then an organization would perform at a higher level of productivity (Barney 1986). There is presently little agreement, therefore, about what the concept of organizational culture means or how it should be observed and measured (Schein 1990). Because of the lack of agreement concerning theoretical formulations about organizational culture, its delineation, and its possible relationship to performance outcomes, no significant body of empirical research exists. Instead, researchers have primarily focused on defining and describing the variables of organizational culture and cautiously suggested a possible relationship between organizational culture and outcomes (Owens 1987). As Mackenzie (1986) argues, organizational culture as a concept may be a useful means of assessing the congruency of the organizations goals, strategies and task organization, and resulting outcomes. Without valid and reliable measures of the critical aspects of organizational culture, however, state- ments about its importance and effect on performance will continue to be based on speculation, personal observations, and case studies (Uttal 1983). As a consequence, management strategies and programs to cre ate organizational change through under- standing the organizations environment and strategically manipulating aspects of its culture will continue to be poorly focused and difficult to implement and evaluate.