Toimitusjohtajavaihdokset ja muuttunut pankkityö - case: Savonlinnan Osuuspankki 1981 - 2001

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli tarkastella Savonlinnan Osuuspankissa toteutettuja muutoksia vuosina 1981 – 2001, ja sitä, miten henkilöstö on kokenut muutokset pankkityössä. Erityisesti tarkoitus oli tutkia, miten henkilöstö on kokenut toimitusjohtajavaihdokset. Tutkielma toteutettiin teoreettis-empiirisesti. Empiirinen osuus koottiin haastattelemalla kahdeksaa pankin työntekijää. Lisäksi apuna käytettiin pankista saatavaa kirjallista materiaalia. Kolmas osa empiriasta on tutkijan oma työhistoria pankissa ja tuona aikana tehdyt havainnot. Henkilöstö suhtautuu toimitusjohtajavaihdoksiin positiivisen odottavasti. Vahva sitoutuminen organisaatioon auttaa sopeutumaan jatkuviin muutoksiin. Muutosten tarpeellisuus ymmärretään paremmin ja niihin sitoudutaan, kun tietoa muutoksen tarpeellisuudesta saadaan riittävästi, ja kun henkilöstö pääsee osallistumaan muutoksen suunnitteluun. Muutosten ansiosta henkilöstö kokee usein myös oman osaamisensa ja uransa myönteisen kehittymisen

Managing the change of organizational culture in cross-border mergers and acquisitions: The role of post-acquisition integration in organizational culture change

Over the years, cross-border mergers and acquisitions have become a popular strategic option for variety of firms. Companies often seek rapid growth through acquiring potentially valuable enterprises or attempting to enhance their organization’s profitability by merging with other firms. However, managing the change of organizational culture is a major managerial challenge as companies often confront difficulties when merging two previously autonomous organizational cultures into one, joint organizational culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase understanding related to the challenges and possibilities concerning the management of organizational culture change in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The research question “How to manage the change of organizational culture in cross-border mergers and acquisitions?” is analysed in relation to the theories presented in this thesis regarding organizational culture, organizational change and acculturation as well as in relation with the collected empirical data. The research question is divided into three sub-questions according to the following: (1) “What is the role of organizational culture in organizations?”, (2) “How to manage organizational change in mergers and acquisitions?” and (3) “How to manage organizational culture change through acculturation?”. The thesis is conducted as a qualitative case study research including three personal interviews and one group interview. The interviews were conducted as a combination of semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Theories related to organizational culture, the management of change as well as acculturation are studied and further analysed in relation to empirical material collected by the researcher. Research findings indicate that that several factors can influence the success of managing the organizational culture change in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Factors such as defining the preferred acculturation model prior the merger; managing the resistance of change; open communication; acknowledgement of local culture and cultural differences; involvement of personnel in change processes; as well as the formulation and implementation of comprehensive change plans proved to be important factors with relation to successful management of organizational culture change

Social media and related technology:drivers of change in managing the contemporary sales force

The selling environment has undergone tremendous transformation over the past 2 decades. Perhaps the greatest change has centered on changes and advancements in technology. The latest dramatic change has been the rapidly increasing use of social media and other related technologies in the business-to-business realm. The sales world began the use of technology through the use of Web 1.0, which was primarily webpage oriented; now we see the world of social media as the paradigm of how firms should implement technology. Although there has been some recent emphasis on how marketing might implement social media into their strategies and how the individual salesperson might implement social media into his or her daily selling routine, no substantive discussion on how social media is affecting the role of the sales manager has appeared in the literature. This article systematically examines how social media is impacting the sales management function and, in fact, may be dramatically revolutionizing the position. To help the marketing and sales organization better understand the changing sales world, we present eight lessons that every sales manager needs to embrace.

Generic competencies and practices of managing by competencies: an exploratory study in different organizational contexts

Given the increasingly demanding labor market, today’s professional should act according to certain generic competencies, which allows him to perform as required by the contemporary world. In parallel, human resource management (HRM) current trends, highlight the importance that managing by competencies has in the organizational context, in the sense that it impels a more strategic and integrated HRM. The evidence of the theoretical and practical pertinence of this theme resulted in an exploratory study of a qualitative nature, which findings lead us to conclude that the most valued generic competencies by firms are flexibility, interpersonal relationship, adjustment to change and teamwork. Another finding is that HRM managing by competencies practices is characterized by informality. Managing by competencies is more frequent presence in processes as: recruitment, retention and in the employees’ development plans.

The optimal allocation rule and the water market as the most effective tools of managing water shortage in an irrigation district

The conference program will cover all areas of environmental and resource economics, ranging from topics prevailing in the general debate, such as climate change, energy sources, water management and ecosystem services evaluation, to more specialized subjects such as biodiversity conservation or persistent organic pollutants. The congress will be held on the Faculty of Economics of the University of Girona, located in Montilivi, a city quarter situated just few minutes from the city center, conveniently connected by bus lines L8 and L11.

'Producing the Scene': the Evolution of the Director in British Theatre 1900-50

The role of the director as the individual who harnesses and controls resources to shape the theatrical product to a personal artistic vision, begins to emerge in British theatre in the early years of the twentieth century. What distinguishes the role from that of the actor-manager who had led the profession since the seventeenth century, is that it separates off from the leading actor in performance. The power and authority of the director (or producer as he or she tended to be known initially) is exercised in the pre-performance stage. In the first half of the century there were still old-style actor-managers—Donald Wolfit is a prime example—and many of the new directors had begun their careers as actors and some continued to act their in their own productions. But the perception of the function of the director began to change radically. In part this was linked to the early attempts to create a new model of producing company or ‘repertory’ theatre which required a different set of administrative as well as artistic skills to tackle the challenge of a short-run system of multiple play production. This became especially important in the developing network of regional repertory theatres which were established as autonomous, locally-specific institutions predicated on policies opposed to the dominant commercial ethos. The best-known of the early directors, most notably H.Granville Barker, confined their radical experiments to short-lived metropolitan experiments, or, as in the case of Terence Gray and J.B.Fagan, operated within the influential Oxbridge nexus. Others such as H.K.Ayliff, Herbert Prentice, William Armstrong and William Bridges-Adams remain comparatively obscure because of their long-term ‘provincial’ connections or, as in the case of Nugent Monck and Edy Craig because their creativity was largely channelled through amateur actors. This chapter will explore the evolving role of the director as both a necessary functionary and an artistic innovator within the changing structures of British theatre.

Irreversible change of pore structure of MCM-41 upon hydration at room temperature

The pore structure stability of MCM-41 materials upon hydration/dehydration was studied by XRD, Si-29 MAS NMR, and gravimetric adsorption techniques. Results demonstrated that collapses of the pore structure of MCM-41 occurred upon rehydration at room temperature due to the hydrolysis of the bare Si-O-Si(Al) bonds in the presence of water vapor. Full structure collapses of MCM-41 were found to occur when a MCM-41 sample was left in air for three months. It is also suggested that care must be taken when XRD is used to evaluate the structure property of MCM-41 materials to avoid the possible adverse effects of water vapor.

PULSATILITY INDEX CHANGE OF BRACHIAL ARTERY SHOWS BETTER REPRODUCIBILITY THAN FLOW-MEDIATED VASODILATION

We aim to evaluate intra- and interobserver reproducibility of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and of pulsatility index change (PI-C) 1 min after a 5-min forearm compression in pregnant women. Flow-mediated dilation and PI-C were assessed in 31 healthy pregnant women in 3 consecutive days, by two observers. A broader range of response to the stimulus was observed for PI-C (-58.99%-86.71%) than FMD (2.38%-27.01%). The intraclass correlation coefficients were higher for PI-C than for FMD (intra = 0.90 vs. 0.69, p = 0.047; inter = 0.94 vs. 0.61, p = 0.007). Therefore, PI-C measurements were more reliable than FMD. However, studies comprising of subjects with cardiovascular risk factors relating FMD and PI-C become necessary to validate this method for the study of endothelial dysfunction. (E-mail: wpmartins@gmail.com) (C) 2010 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.

Evolution of colorectal cancer: Change of pace and change of direction

This review compiles evidence for an alternative to the classical adenoma-carcinoma sequence in the evolution of colorectal cancer. It is suggested that between 30 and 50% of colorectal cancers are not initiated by mutation of the tumor suppressor gene APC, but through the epigenetic silencing of genes implicated in the control of differentiation, cell cycle control and DNA repair proficiency. The precursor polyps are often characterized by a serrated architecture, and include hyperplastic polyps, admixed polyps and serrated adenomas. The alternative pathway is heterogeneous and may culminate in cancers showing low or high level DNA microsatellite instability (MSI-L and MSI-H, respectively), and in cancers that are microsatellite stable (MSS). Cancers showing DNA MSI may be characterized by an accelerated evolution. Cancers in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer show features of both classical (adenoma and APC mutation) and alternative pathways (rapid evolution, MSI-H and lack of chromosomal instability). (C) 2001 Blackwell Science Asia Pty Ltd.