Month: November 2011

I agree with Steven’s blog post about the truthfulness and accuracy of ads. Companies, especially high-profile ones, need to ensure that the messages that their ads send is not only effective in enticing customers, but also is accurately reflective of the company and the product it is trying to sell.

Brand image and reputation are incredibly important to customers, and in order to protect those, companies need to be honest with their customers. Steven’s example of Nike’s sweatshop scandals is perfectly illustrative of the backlash that failing to protect those two factors can lead to.

Luckily, some companies are beginning to take a stand such as Jacob, the Canadian clothing company that has refused to retouch the models in their ads since 2010. Instead of falsely depicting what its products will look like on customers, Jacob has chosen to display its products in an accurate way, thereby increasing customer’s trust in the company and its products. I predict that this “honest” advertising is going to be a trend and will take off most notably in the fashion industry.

The Global X Social Media Index is a fund that groups social media stocks together. Since social media is “generating a lot of interest among investors”, grouping them together might capitalize on that interest; however this blog suggests that poor timing is the reason why this fund falling.

Companies included in this fund are: GroupOn, LinkedIn, Pandora, and other high-profile social media companies.

Although these companies are high-profile, the hype surrounding them is dying down, resulting in the lack  success of the fund.

This blog offers valuable insight about this particular issue because it suggests that similar funds will attract investors who want to “[spread] risk among a number of different companies“, but also contemplates whether investors will catch on right away or not.

Despite the disappointing results of this fund, I suspect that similar funds will start appearing in different areas when investors begin to take note of trends in certain markets. This also ties in with the lecture when we discussed Bloomberg which gives a snapshot of markets that would include information such as the status of these funds.

Cameron posted about sexism in the workplace in the context that women are often paid less and are given less opportunities to make important decisions compared to men in business. While I agree that there is obvious inequality in the workplace, I have a few insights as to why this inequality exists.

Evidently, both men and women have the ability to succeed in business. Using organizational behaviour concepts, I have learned that men and women are often evaluated differently despite given the same tasks; for example, in this article, the author explains that for women in leadership positions, body language carries a larger importance compared to men in the same roles.

Since men and women are evaluated differently in the workplace, it may be more difficult for women to reach senior-level positions in a company because they are given different criteria and expectations.

This inequality shows the importance of being evaluated fairly; the problem of being evaluated by different criteria can potentially be solved by using the balance scorecard that we discussed in the lectures and tutorials, or even applying the same concept to the existing criteria.

Jim Pattison Group is an example of an entrepreneurship.

The company started when Jim Pattison “took out a C$40,000 loan against his mortgage and his insurance” in 1960 to buy a car dealership in Burnaby.The dealership enjoyed rapid success as his revenues increased from “just over C$2 million in 1961 to over C$4 million in 2000“. Evidently, the risk he took was extremely successful.

What sets his business apart from others is that he has maintained control over all of his ventures, meaning that he does not work with any partners or shareholders. This can be seen as a new form of organization, which allows Jim Pattison to monitor his ventures carefully.

Jim Pattison Group is also known for acquiring many other companies.

On average, Canadians are working more and spending less time with their families, which leads to lack of job satisfaction and increases absenteeism. The effect is having a negative impact on the economy.

A possible solution is to work from home, but doing so will require the ability to balance work and home life without relying on the structure and discipline being in an office setting would have provided.

Since the number of people who work from home is increasing, (due to factors such as technology), it is important to the general job satisfaction and job performance of those who work at home.

In Tuesday’s lecture, we discussed organizational behaviour, and more specifically, we went into detail about organizational culture. The question is if people who work from home feel like they are part of the organization, and if so, are they influenced by the organization’s culture? Therefore, although working from home is a possible solution to job dissatisfaction, the effects of working from home can also lead to job dissatisfaction.