The Applicants Behavior and Personality Traits - Research Paper Example

Paper Tobacco and Cigarette Manufacturing Company Tobacco and cigarette companies deal with complex issues, which place upon them the dilemma of finding a compromise between ethics and being a socially responsible company, and developing ways to become more profitable. Unlike companies in other industries, tobacco and cigarette companies cannot simply implement advertising and marketing campaigns because of the potentially harmful nature of its products. Hence, CEOs of tobacco and cigarette manufacturing companies must constantly make decisions and sacrifice either part of their profits or the well-being of its customers in the long-run. Faced with the predicament dropping sales and disappointed shareholders, while at the same time being socially responsible to the public, the CEO must make smart and difficult decisions to satisfy all stakeholders. In order to address this problem, the CEO of the tobacco and cigarette company must device a strategy to locate new markets for their products while at the same time ensuring that they get the most profit out of their traditional one. In this case, the CEO could consider expanding their market abroad through exporting their final products to countries in Asia, where a large percentage of the population already smoke. In doing so, the company could utilize their current, and even old, marketing and advertising strategies to promote their product, allowing the company to save money from developing a new advertising campaign in their prospective markets. In addition, because a large percentage of the population in this region already smoke, this strategy decreases, to a certain extent, the ethical burden that the company will face in turning non-smokers into smokers. However, it is imperative for the company to focus their marketing campaign into attracting current smokers to switch brands and not in converting non-smokers. The aforementioned strategy can also be stretched further by setting up a manufacturing plant in developing countries in Asia. By doing so, the company will not only bring much needed employment in the region, but it will also save the company expenses in manufacturing due to lower labor costs. Furthermore, the abundance of raw materials in the region will also provide the company with further benefits in terms of keeping costs at bay. By implementing such strategy, the company should be able to satisfy both its shareholders' demand for profits, brought about by reduced costs and increased markets, while at the same time satisfying stakeholders in the community because of responsible advertising and management. Another important step that the company must take in its traditional market at home to improve performance is to repackage its products and update its look to appeal to the changing tastes and preferences of its consumers. However, in order to truly ensure the company's success in the long run, the company must diversify its products by manufacturing either new tobacco-based products to diversify risks or by manufacturing products, which could be consumed together with cigarettes such as cigarette filters, and the like. Manufacturing cigarette filters, for example, will not be too costly for the company because cigarettes already contain filters, hence, not much research and development will be required. In addition, this strategy will not only improve the company's overall value, but it could also improve the performance of the company's tobacco and cigarette products. The company could advertise cigarette filters and place its cigarette products in the advertisement. By doing so, the company will increase the exposure of its cigarette products without explicitly advertising them, while at the same time advertising new products. In addition, the company will also be able to improve its overall image for its stakeholders in the community because they will be indirectly helping smokers to minimize the damages caused by smoking through their cigarette filters product line. However, it is imperative that the company remains cautious in downplaying the negative effects of cigarette smoking. Filters, although they can minimize the damage of cigarette smoking, will not totally eliminate them. Thus, the company must be careful in ensuring that customers are fully aware of the dangers of cigarette smoking. In the case of a tobacco and cigarette manufacturing company, therefore, CEOs must constantly vigilant in balancing the interests of shareholders - profits, and stakeholders - social responsibility. Critiques that social responsibility in this industry is an oxymoron is not completely unfounded. However, this should not stop CEOs from striving to gain profits for their company; it is, after all, their job. What is imperative is that CEOs take into consideration searching for new industries to profit from in the long run. Presently, strong medical evidence indicates that the industry will inevitably reach its demise. Thus, it is the job of the CEO to stir the company into a direction, which will shield their interests from this reality in the future. Crafting a solid long term plan focused in developing new products will be the best course of action - unless cancer-free cigarettes can be developed. Paper 2 - Real Estate Development Corporation As the President of a Real Estate Development Corporation, one can never overemphasize the importance of finding prime lots that show huge profit potentials similar to the real estate identified in the case. However, developing real estate into commercial complexes and high rise buildings or condominiums will always elicit negative reactions from members of the community especially if the piece of land to be developed is so near landscape and ecological areas such as lakes, parks, and the like. Such conditions place real estate developers in a difficult situation where they have to acquire necessary permits to begin a project and appeal to a community for support, or at the very least to refrain from objecting to your endeavors. In order to address such problems, it is imperative to present the project both to city hall and the members of the community in a manner that will not only emphasize benefits for the community both in terms of monetary and non-monetary gains, but will also accentuate the project's sustainability. Moreover, it is also imperative to make the community part of the development process, providing them a sense of ownership on the endeavor. Thus, a project proposal focused on the ideals of sustainable development and community involvement will be the best course of action. In order to successfully develop such project proposal, certain key steps must be undertaken. First, the company must hire ecological and environmental specialists to actively participate in the conceptualization process by raising red flags that the company must address to avoid permanently damaging the community's ecosystem and giving inputs on how to ensure that all decisions are made as environmentally sound as possible. This will allow the company to successfully dispute, with credibility, possible objections that their proposal will elicit in terms of environmental complications. An example of such strategy is the development proposal Britain submitted to the Olympic Committee in bidding for London 2012. In building the "Olympic village" that will be used for the competition, Britain focused on making their construction as ecologically friendly as possible with the active participation of environmentalists to help them in conceptualizing developments for the space. Second, the company must also work with non-profit organizations and other citizen's organizations to identify the needs of the community and integrate these needs with the company's development plan. This could be achieved through public hearings and meetings with the appropriate organization. Last, the company must also include within the project's architecture "nature spots" or parks and provide the community with a natural setting within their business complex. They could integrate the ideas and concepts of "green design" to provide recreational areas for the community and also preserve part of the existing nature within the land they plan to develop. An example of such development is the Playa Vista project developed by the Environmental Solving Enterprises, which involves the preservation of trees and other nature within a busy commercial complex (Sulnick & Petersen, 2000). By implementing the aforementioned steps, the company can develop a project that will not only ensure the protection and safety of the ecosystem, but will also flaunt its beauty to the public, while at the same time involving the community in it. However, this may not be enough to convince the community and city hall about the benefits of the project. Thus, the company must now embark on an advertising and marketing campaign aimed at presenting this development project to the public. In the marketing campaign, the company can focus on the project's innovativeness in terms of design, sustainability and environment-friendliness, and the possibility for creating opportunities for the community. In addition, the company also appeals to city hall and its politicians' political interest, by emphasizing how supporting an innovative and sustainable project such as this could appeal to their voters and constituents. By implementing these strategies in developing the project to acquire the permission of city hall and the approval of the community, it is unlikely for the company to get a negative response. Furthermore, by integrating sustainable development and community involvement in the endeavor, the company will not only increase the monetary value of the lot, but it will also increase the corporation's value in the long run in terms of polishing company image and reputation. This will also allow the company, which at present is just a medium size company, to position itself within the community and build a name for itself in real estate development. Lastly, it will also give the company a certain amount of political leverage as a result of the project. In today's world, therefore, it is simply not enough that companies come up with profitable projects. Instead, attention should also be given to ideals of sustainable development and community involvement. These two concepts, regardless of how the company views them, if properly used and introduced can give a company great returns in the long run. References: Hughes,Charles & Richard Spray. 2002. "Smart Communities and Smart Growth: Maximising Benefits for the Corporation," Journal Of Corporate Real Estate (1Jun.2002):207-214. ProQuest. LA Public Library, Los Angeles. 15 Apr. 2004 Paper 3 - Corporate Culture Whether it was consciously implemented or developed naturally within the company, corporate culture is an important factor that affects companies. Defined as "a patterned way of thinking, focused on the organization's central tasks (operations) and relationships (administration), passed on by generations and slow to change" (Wilson, 1989); it plays an important role not only in determining the business environment of the company, but in determining the company's overall performance, as well. Leadership, on the other hand, is a mental concept that can be denoted with the idea of power influence, as it is referred to in the corporate world. The two concepts, corporate culture and leadership (or leaders), are important determinants of the success or failure of a company. While there is a possibility for a two-way relationship between the two concepts, where leadership can affect corporate culture and corporate culture can affect leadership, the fact that corporate culture changes more slowly and is more difficult to alter than leaders and leadership style makes leadership more variable than and dependent to corporate culture. Leaders, therefore, like any other member of an organization are guided by corporate culture in terms limiting their corporate behavior on one hand, and encouraging certain attitudes on the other. These limitations can be as simple as a dress code, fixed office hours, and decorum, or as complicated as limiting the relationships and friendships allowed within the organization. On the other hand, it encourages behavior by influencing and encouraging an individual's creativity, to compelling them to be more aggressive in conducting business. While the aforementioned effects of corporate culture on a leader seem trivial, one significant effect it can have is on the effectiveness of the individual's leadership abilities. Components of corporate cultures, such as those stipulated in a company's credo can limit a leader's actions in ways that can be to the good or detriment for the company. For example, a company that stresses corporate social responsibility as a central principle will force leaders to constantly engage in socially relevant activities that will improve the company's over-all value and image. While this is commendable, it poses a distraction to company leaders from focusing on a company's core projects. In a different case, a company that subscribes to profit maximization as a core value may force leaders to become aggressive, strict, and be absolutely intolerant towards employees taking short breaks or extremely demanding on their employees. Such actions could then elicit dissatisfaction among subordinates, and eventually affect the leader's capability. Corporate culture can also significantly affect a leader's capabilities because it gives subordinates and employees a set of criterion that they could use to assess their leaders and their leader's decisions. Thus, from this argument, one can say that from the point of view of employees who participate in the company's corporate culture, they can be more inclined to follow a leader who exemplifies the ideals of their corporate culture as opposed to one who does not. An employee that works in a company whose corporate culture is based on community service, for example will find leaders who are courteous and patient with customers more legitimate than one who is disrespectful and rude. In this sense, adherence to corporate culture gives leaders more legitimacy based on the premise that leaders should lead by example. Given the impact corporate culture has on a manager's leadership capability, it is imperative for them to carefully determine an effective course of action that will yield the best performance among their subordinates. In order to address this, leaders must, therefore find a balance between corporate culture and results for the company. They must therefore, determine the degree at which they will adhere to corporate culture while at the same time aiming for results. While there is no universal way to address this, leaders must, at the very least understand corporate culture more as a set of guiding principles and less as rules and regulations that demand for strict compliance and conduct their business based on these principles with the understanding that they may not be completely applicable to all circumstances. However, to ensure that certain deviations from the corporate culture is not viewed as violations by subordinates; leaders must make their subordinates understand the principles the same way he does, but at the same time making sure that they conduct their business with utmost cautiousness and discretion. Furthermore, while it is arguable that leaders define corporate culture and should therefore have the authority to alter it as they see fit based on the simple idea of ownership is logical, this does not follow for corporate culture. Like national culture, corporate culture develops more slowly. Furthermore, once instilled, it is even more difficult to alter it. It may take months and even years before one can effectively change or alter corporate culture. This does not mean, however, that one should not attempt to change corporate culture. Like every other culture in the world, corporate culture can definitely benefit from revisions and changes through time to make it more applicable to corporations and business environments today. One must note, however, that this change will progress slowly and may not be readily acceptable. References: Wilson, James Q. (1989): Bureaucracy: What government agencies do and why they do it, Basic Books, New York. Paper 4 - Human Resources One of the most important assets that a company can possess is its employees. Thus, for every company, it is imperative to find, not only the most competent applicant for a job, but also the most suitable, especially for high-level managerial positions. This places upon the hiring manager the daunting task of finding the right applicant for a company. However, although hiring managers can use the job documents that applicants submitted to evaluate who will be right for a job, such documents are fast becoming more and more outmoded, and even useless, because applicants are fast catching up and learning how to make their resumes and cover letters more appealing. Hence, as a hiring manager, when all applicants seem equally competent and eager to take on a job, it is imperative to identify personality traits and behavioral competencies that are crucial characteristics of a successful manager by taking on an aggressive stance at hiring and "firing up" the candidates. Among fresh graduates, it is both easier and more difficult to find the most promising or the best candidate because while it presents you with a set of applicants who are not only eager, promising, and educated with contemporary concepts and full of fresh ideas; but also because they are more likely to have similar credentials and experiences. In order to choose among these applicants, a hiring manager must focus more on their personality traits and behavioral competencies such as their emotionality, assertiveness, enthusiasm, rule orientation, social confidence, sensitivity, wariness, adaptability, self-esteem, and independence, among others. These traits, however, are difficult to determine based on the usual interview process where applicants are judged on their eloquence and intelligence in answering questions. It is only by taking aggressive, and sometimes unorthodox, methods that these traits can be identified. It is imperative to first understand why these traits are important in identifying suitable candidates. Managers, unlike regular employees, must possess more than just the skills and competencies specific to their department. For example, a sales manager must not only know how to sell, instead he must also be able to lead his team and impart to them knowledge on how to be a good salesman - he must be able to leave the selling to his team and start managing. However, it is difficult to determine who has potential to be managers and who does not, because among fresh graduates, most will probably have little to no experience in managing. Thus, it will be unfair to favor one applicant over another based on experience because at this point, it is possible that, as fresh graduates, those with experience were just luckier than those without. Given the importance of these traits, the best way to determine if an applicant possesses them, and to what degree they possess them, is through more aggressive and unorthodox means - by "firing up" the applicants. Compared to a conservative approach of career counseling, a hiring manager will only be able to gain little insight into the potential of his applicant's ability to become managers. This is because applicants can easily prepare for the traditional conservative approach to career counseling, thus instead of getting real answers, the hiring manager will most likely get polished and rehearsed answers. Furthermore, the personality traits that are integral in choosing potential managers can be best identified by observing a person's composure and reactions when they are pressured and placed in high-stress situations. These high stress situations, however, can only come out when applicants are caught unaware and "fired-up". Hence, how does one go about "firing up" their applicants One way is to conduct a reverse panel interview where instead of having a panel of interviewers for an applicant, a set of two or three applicants will be interviewed by a single interviewer, putting pressure on the applicants. The hiring manager may then interview the applicants and even ask them, as a final question, why they should be hired instead of the one next to him. Although it may sound like a scene from television's The Apprentice, this will determine who among the candidates can handle the pressure and maintain composure intense moments. It will also indicate who among the candidates observe better because in order to prove if one is better than the others in the room, they must be able to listen and observe to what the others are saying. Another way to do this is to ask the applicants to introduce and make a case for themselves in front of the other applicants. One of the qualities that a good manager will possess is his assertiveness, social confidence, wariness, and self-esteem. Managers must be able to take control and lead people, which will be difficult if he is not assertive and if he does not possess self-esteem. Furthermore, as a manager, he will be expected to conduct himself in front of people from different walks of life, from different departments in the company, and even different managers from other companies. Thus, by doing so, a hiring manager can have insights as to who is better in commanding attention and respect, who is rude in demanding it, or who does not call for it at all. In choosing the most qualified applicant for any position, it is important to focus on the applicant's behavior and personality traits, which can determine whether they would be fit for a managerial position. Managers are given daunting tasks, which requires, above all else, the capacity to lead. Unfortunately, the traditional conservative methods of career counseling provide little insight into a person's behavior and personality traits. Thus, it is important to learn how to be creative in devising methods to assess applicants, especially those who seem to have equal skills and competencies, such as the case for most fresh graduates and one way to do such is by "firing-up" applicants placing them in high-stress environments. Read More