Alcan Disaster Recovery - Essay Example

? Alcan Case Four Introduction Organizations whether public or private from various sectors are faced with the possibilities of disruptive events that often have impacts that range from mere inconveniences and short-lived disruptions of normal operations to the very destructions of the merger organization. The Organizational functions that support business disruptions including prevention, recovery preparedness, and responses such as emergency response, risk management, crisis management, contingency planning, business recovery and resumption are, therefore, established and resourced basing on the organization’s perceptions of its relevant environment and the risk within the environment of such organizations. Emergence conditions may arise any time in any organization and measures should be put in place in order to provide the employee with the best care in case of such an appraisal. The development and implementation of an emergence plan would ensure that such situations are handled well. Injuries are the inherent risks in emergence situations, and the only way to respond appropriately to emergent situation is been always prepared. Being adequately prepared requires that there is an emergence plan; proper training of personnel, making sure medical equipment is well maintained, proper and adequate means of communication, proper utilization of medical equipment, and continued education for all personnel in emergency medicine (Belmer, 2006)..This paper discuses the Alcan organization with a major focus on Organization Disaster Recovery Plan, Political Forces Influencing IT Improvements within the organization and the Change in Management Plan. Alcan Disaster Recovery Plan In cases where there arises an earthquake, there is the need for an Emergency Plan Rehearsal. Emergence or the disaster can be defined as a crisis situation that causes wide spread damages that far exceeds our abilities to recover. The possibility of occurrence of an Emergence or disaster, place, time, and its severity of striking might be reasonably and in certain cases be accurately predicted by scientific and technological advances (Belmer, 2006). There is always a definite pattern of occurrence of emergence and thus to some extent the impact of damage can be reduced though the extent of damage itself cannot be reduced. Earthquakes are among the natural types of emergences that cause physical injury and fractures. Disaster or Emergence management refers to the action that is taken by an organization as a response to an unexpected event that is adversely affecting either resources or people, as well as threatening the normal operations of the organization. In this case, Disaster Management involves the development of the disaster recovery plan and the implementation of such a plan (Belmer, 2006). The development of the disaster recovery plan is meant to minimize the risks of the disasters and helps in handling them whenever they occur. Related techniques for disaster management include contingency management, risk management and crisis management. Emergency management, on the other hand, is a discipline that deals with avoiding risks and it entails preparing for emergence before its occurrence, emergence response such a quarantine, emergence evacuation, and mass decontamination, as well as rebuilding and supporting the societies after the occurrence of either man-made or natural disasters (Belmer, 2006). There are a number of advantages of developing an Emergency Plan Rehearsal. First, while coming up with an Emergency Plan Rehearsal, one would need to develop a disaster recovery continuity plan. The disaster recovery continuity plan will be a helpful tool in identifying areas of concern. One would have to engage with a community to help him, or her in arranging the brainstorming events, prepare checklists, interviews, questionnaires, workshops, access expert facilitators, review assumption lists, and use data from other projects. Dong this, would help assess each event on a probability scale (Belmer, 2006). Secondly, having an Emergency Plan Rehearsal can help in influencing the future procurements of new capabilities and services, as well as help in dictating where those services should be located for the purposes of future improvement of the disaster management (Belmer, 2006). Thirdly, having an Emergency Plan Rehearsal will help in developing the contingency plans to cover the majority or top ten of the events. Fourthly, with the Emergency Plan Rehearsal in place, issues can have owners being responsible in ensuring implementation of processes, making sure people are trained, making sure there is provision of regular updated reports concerning the progress to the senior management (Belmer, 2006). It is a common practice to have the Emergency Plan Rehearsal since it will help in improving the corporate knowledge, as well as the experience and might prompt people in thinking laterally and to push them to search for alternative solutions. Last but not least, the Emergency Plan Rehearsal helps to minimize the damages and also in making sure future budgets is set for the purposes of future improvements (Belmer, 2006). Companies require more than one team to help coordinate the crisis response efforts. The Alcan Company has teams which include crisis management team, crisis action team and crisis communication team. These teams were created so that they can be used in handling different facets of the crisis with schedules being used for efforts coordination. Communications was established to ensure information is sent out as soon as possible. Establishment of these teams before the crisis acts as a blueprint to follow in case things are chaotic. Simple teamwork helps manufacturing the Alcan Company minimize results during crisis (Belmer, 2006). The managers in the Crisis Management Team disseminate the information that is needed for access and completion of the task. They have the contact information used in notifying the proper agencies and in getting the crisis efforts moving. Crisis Communication Team is responsible for handling the public relations, the print media, the internet and the news. This team, as well ensures the product users, employees families and the affected parties get notified of the crisis. The team may also work with the manager to enhance communication with shareholders, and help in distributing the information that is required during or after the crisis (Belmer, 2006). The Crisis Action Team works on the ground to put the crisis plan in action. This team is the largest and might consist of members from outside the company depending on the nature of the crisis. This team evaluates the building or rebuilds after the major disaster, as well as pulling the products from the shelves. The company comes up with teams basing on the particular crisis. Each team is versed and is trained in handling a particular crisis (Belmer, 2006). The Organization and the Forthcoming IT improvement In Alcan Company, there are a number of IT strategies and practices that are employed in the organization. First, a blueprint was established for new orientations in the management of IT. In this case, the strategic plan had to be focused on the tight agreement between the business strategies, shared centers of service, and IT. The strategy laid a basis for application of the philosophy of the shared-services (Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). This was a powerful strategy in Alcan as it communicated and established a central vision of the management of IT in the whole enterprise. This strategy required the management of the common services to the business groups to be done using a centralized unit of organization that was put in place by the internal mechanisms of billing. In this regard, services of IT, human resource, and financial services, due to the centralization of the services that were shared led to the promotion of shared competencies, economies of scale, standardization, consolidation, low-cost expertise access, standardization, and competencies. This strategy showed out the desire of the senior IT management in bettering the IT services with strategies that are corporate. It proposed the setting up of a structure of government that clearly identifies the roles of all the stake holders within the management of IT (Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). It also proposed the reduction of complexity and diverse technology, development of a partnership that is preferred with service suppliers globally and to improve the security of information within the company. This strategy made the company’s desire of repatriating management of services of IT so as to get the tools that are indispensable for its management globally. Apart from this strategy, in different business groups, the leading IT initiative that was in place included the implementation of the SAP integrated package despite its lack of inter group coordination (Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). The introduction of SAP strategy in each of the business groups made an enormous progress in the consolidation and standardization of the IT infrastructure within the organization. The dominant practices include the creation of IT enterprise architecture, management of applications, managing the technological infrastructure and management of the IT investments. Political Forces Influencing IT Improvements in the Alcan organization. Politics and developments are two things that are closely correlated. The development of organizations, institutions, organizational attitudes and core values of the organization is closely related to the politics of the day. The establishment of ideologies, the display of characteristics such as chain of command, merit-based recruitments, and division of labor in any political system affects the operations of the companies either directly or indirectly. Linkage between politics of the day and economic progress of a company is among the key issues that affect the operations of the company. The Alcan organization being one of the manufacturing companies, therefore, attributes its successes, as well as its failures to political influence (Girard, 2005). The company has failed to realize its full potential following a number of political centered challenges. One of such challenges involves the management’s inability to set up aluminum refinery bases in some countries due to uncertainties of political turmoil. In many countries, generation of electricity is solely a responsibility of the government. Since the Alcan organization is a heavy consumer of electricity, its reliance of the electricity supplied by the government becomes uneconomical. Smelting of aluminum requires large amounts of electricity. Research shows that the costs of smelting aluminum represent 35-40% of the total production cost. This means that the competitive standing in the production of aluminum is because of its ability to generate and supply its own energy to its many smelters at relatively lower costs. This implies that refusal by some governments to allow them generate its own power limits it from exploring all the opportunities in the market (Girard, 2005). The Alcan organization has been criticized for a variety of lawsuits (Girard, 2005). For instance in 2004, the Alcan organization was made to pay $a3.6millions to the US Environmental protection Agency in an attempt to cover the environmental cleanup costs in Northern New York states. In yet another similar instance, the Alcan United Stated subsidiary department was charged by the US justice department. These lawsuits have been outstanding blows to the achievements of the Organization in many countries of the world. One other political challenge to the Alcan organization is in line with its production of aeroplace, as well as weapons in relation to military and space. The customers for Alcan in this sector include Boeing, Eurocopter, the Aibus, ATR, Sonaca, Dassault, Sonaca, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. It is also estimated that the Alcan Engineered Business group generates approximately $1.15 billion of the generated revenue from the sales of customers within the industries of the military and space (Girard, 2005). Because of its involvement in weapon productions, political sanction imposed upon any country affects its business either directly or indirectly. Heavy taxes imposed by countries in which the organization has businesses is also one such challenge to the organization. It is, therefore, upon the management to make sure they incorporate subsidiaries in countries where the company can pay little or no task. Such countries are referred to as tax heavens. Unfortunately, taxes are politically inclined (Girard, 2005). In the political profile, of the Organization, the leaders of the organization are politically inclined. For instance Travis Engen, the CEO and Director Alcan were a former member of the US defense Secretary Rumsfeld defense Business Board. Because of this, Rumsfeld established the board consisting of twenty businesses executive that was to advise the defense department on how to manage the Alcan within the department of defense interests in support of the US state military. This and many others have always made the organization compromise weighty decision pertaining the management in favor of some political system (Girard, 2005). Change In The Management Plan. This Plan focuses on reducing impacts of the business destruction by incidence Reduction and effective response delivery (Girard, 2009). For the achievement, of the maximum impact reduction, a planning that is comprehensive needs to be put in place. This Plan considers the appropriate audience. This includes the external agencies and the internal management, Board and Staff (Girard, 2009). All the business groups of Alcan Company need to acquire a health and safety occupational series of assessment (OHSAS certified). Each business group should have a regular toolbox meeting in order to facilitate safe practices. A safety committee of executive raises the safety awareness within each business group. This committee will also enhance safety skills by training all individuals at Alcan. This committee would also implement systems of assessing the operational hazards in the business (Girard, 2009). The interface Man-made machine program needs to be reviewed for safety performance within the business to help in continuous supply of services and materials (Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). The leadership safety program needs to be reviewed in order to enhance the existing business continuity plans. Apart from this, the management of the company needs to identify services that are essential, plants, and other inputs of production. The company shall Plan for up to fifty percent absence of staff for the duration of 3 weeks at the height of any business disturbance. The company will assess the need of skills and core staff to make sure that essential positions in the company are supported by an alternative member of staff. Conclusion.   The key areas addressed by this paper included Organization Disaster Recovery Plan, Political Forces Influencing IT Improvements within the organization, their remedies and the Change in Management Plan. Alcan as a mature IT organization has undergone major transformations in trying to cope with challenging competitive business world. In doing so, it has ensured there is Transformation along its IT sector, Theory and Socio-Technical Theory, enhanced communication Policies and other business Practices. The effective Application of Theories within the Organization including the change in its management plan is one other element that has seen Alcan rise to its success. With all this in place, the Alcan Organization has remained on course for many years. It is currently the leading Aluminum producing company in the world basing on its streamlined IT system management.  Annotated Bibliography Dube, L, Bernier, C, & Roy, V. (2009). Taking on the challenge of IT management in a global business context: The Alcan case – Part B. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 7(2), 1-12. The authors discuss the challenges of managing IT management in a business. They summarize the challenges of implementing changes in Information Technology department of the Alcan organization, as well as the change in management style owing to the coming of the new chief officer in charge of IT. The authors indicate that poor management leads to reduced effectiveness and hence low production. This source is particularly vital because it provide an overview of how change in management style can be healthy for a growing organization. Dube, L, Bernier, C, & Roy, V. (2009). Taking on the challenge of IT management in a global business context: The Alcan case – Part A. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 7(2), 1-10. The authors discuss the challenge of implementing and managing IT in the Alcan Organization. They discuss the transformation that Alcan organization undergoes with respect to Information Technology. The article summarizes the historical background of the Alcan organization with a view to indicate the challenges the organization has had to experience as a business entity that is trying to impress IT. The source is particularly vital in the light of research presented because it provides an overview of the structure of the Alcan organization, its historical background, as well as the transformational challenges especially when implemented Information technology. Belmer, B. (2006). Alcan AS an IT Organization. Retrieve on 5th June 2012 http//www.iwaysoftware.de/applications/alcan. The author presents the Alcan Organization as an IT Organization. The author focuses on the Alcan organization giving much description about its locality, as well as its management. The article covers a range of IT business units cutting across the challenges the organization experiences while implementing key changes within it. In essence, this source is helpful in getting an overview of the disaster management plan, the structure and organization the Alcan organization as far as IT department is concerned. Girard, R. (2005) Can Alcan claim to be the best: It’s Corporate and social responsibility in question. International journal Canadian Aluminum Giant’s Profile. 7(2), 1- 50. The author presents the Alcan organization as being the best IT organization in the world. The organization holds both social and corporate responsibilities. The author of this journal focuses on general system Theory and Socio-Technical Theory as applicable within the Alcan Organization in making sure it is a world leading IT company. Additionally, the author of this article discuses the economic, political successes, failures, and consequences of the Alcan Organization. This source is helpful in getting an overview of the political challenges, organization plan, successes, and failures, and of the Alcan as an IT Organization. Girard, J. (2009). Alcan Inc. The Simon Fraser University journal 7(3), 1-3. The author discuss the Alcan Organization describing it an organization that empress IT. The article touches on many issues that affect the Alcan as an IT organization cutting across its successes, failures, and consequences. This article serves as a helpful source in getting an overview about the organization change in management plan, successes and consequences of the Alcan Organization. References. Dube, L, Bernier, C, & Roy, V. (2009). Taking on the challenge of IT management in a global business context: The Alcan case – Part A. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 7(2), 1-10. (Article with three authors/Article in a journal with continuous paging/ Article with no DOI)   Dube, L, Bernier, C, & Roy, V. (2009). Taking on the challenge of IT management in a global business context: The Alcan case – Part B. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 7(2), 1-12. (Article with three authors/Article in a journal with continuous paging/ Article with no DOI)   Belmer, B. (2006). Alcan IT Organization. Retrieve on 5th June 2012 http//www.iwaysoftware.de/applications/alcan. (Article with one author/Article without DOI-URL as home page used) Girard, J. (2009). Alcan Inc. The Simon Fraser University journal 7(3), 1-3. (Article with author author/Article in a journal with continuous paging/Article with no DOI)   Girard, R. (2005) Can Alcan claim to be the best: It’s Corporate and social responsibility in question. International journal Canadian Aluminum Giant’s Profile. 7(2), 1- 50. (Article with one author/Article in a journal with continuous paging/Article with no DOI)   Read More