KBR Technology and Engineering Analysis

KBR Technology and Engineering Analysis Introduction to the case: KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root) is a global Infrastructure business Venture. With 57,000 employees operating worldwide, its a leading engineering, construction and services company. Supporting the hydrocarbon, energy, civil infrastructure sectors and government services, its business is based on project management activities. Headquartered in Houston, Texas; it operates from its locations in Australia, Africa, UK, Asia and the Middle East. It enjoys an eminent and one of the leading market positions in the infrastructure sector. KBR serves its customers through six strategic business units: †¢ Upstream offers engineering related services for energy Projects †¢ Downstream serves business clients in the petrochemical coal gasification markets †¢ KBR Services provides construction and maintenance support services †¢ KBR Technology Manages Intellectual Property Rights. †¢ KBR Ventures Provides Financial and management services to its partners. †¢ Government and Infrastructure (GI) offers construction, engineering and project management services. Leveraging from its GI business expertise, KBR formed a Joint venture with Carillion, another company, creating Aspire Defense. Aspire Defence is to deliver Project Allenby/ Connaught. Project Allenby happens to be the largest infrastructure project, in scale, to be awarded by the Ministry of Defence to the private sector. Aspire defence has three business wings: * Aspire Defence Limited (ADL), responsible for Service Delivery. * Aspire Defence Capital Works (ADCW) delivers the construction. * Aspire defence Services Limited (ADSL) delivers facilities and provides service management support to the project. Our study is to analyse the organization of such a diversified business venture. The report is to study the Organizational behavior and change management systems in place. Our focus would be on Aspire defence. Q1). Leadership and the leadership style used by the company and its relationship with the leadership theories you are familiar with? Leadership is amongst the most important things by which an organization is run. Its the most celebrated of the management traits. â€Å"Effective leadership is the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals† (Ogbonnia, 2007). Leadership styles refer to the leaders decision making behavior, which is resultant of the philosophy, experience and personality of the leader. Leadership styles may be classified as follows (Lewin, Lippitt,and White, 1939): * Dictator: Leader uses fear and threats to impose his decisions. * Autocratic : Centralised decision making. * Democratic : Partcipative decision making. * Free Rein : Maximum liberty allowed to individuals. KBR follows a flat organizational structure, meaning there are only a few layers between the line workers and ownership. Modern Organizations are continuously becoming flatter, with the leadership shunning their â€Å"lazy† dependence on the hierarchy to get the management data together and then disseminating the leadership decisions down the vertical. KBRs hierarchy suggests a Senior Management Team which wants to be involved in the minutest of the business functionalities. They are dynamic enough to control costs and to increase speed of response to customer desires and market changes. Over the years, KBR has done very well to grow from a small fabrication business to one of the most respected, diversified conglomerates of Britain. Its success suggests that the leadership has been effective to maintain the balance between becoming flatter and the social distance required in order to take the big-picture view; to make structured business decisions. ADSL seems to follow a democratic leadership style. Due to lesser hierarchies, employees tend to be self directed, taking initiatives and applying intuition to their daily operations. With ADL solely responsible for service delivery ; ADSL and ADCW entrusted with project execution, the set up provides a framework where each and every role is involved in the decision making process. With the organization slowly moving towards a matrix structure, the management has a very quick access to the cross functional teams. These teams with specific knowledge of different areas of the business venture, provide important inputs to decision making. As with many modern organizations, the leadership style can be explained by the Situational Leadership theories, wherein the management acts on contingency and takes on a leadership style which a particular situation demands. They are completely flexible. Examine the source of the organizations culture and its implications on the workforce and the organizational performance. Cooke and Rosseau define Organizational culture as â€Å"The ways of thinking, behaving and believing that members of a social unit have in common†. Organisations are viewed as independent, its goals differing from those of its members. There are three main sources from which an organization derives its culture: * The national culture * The Vision, Management style of its founder. * The nature of Business. Matching individuals to organizations is an important part of success to any business. The match between people and the organizations they work for, is determined by the type of organizational culture that exists. The extent to which an organizations values match with that of an individual is the prime determinant of the employees work. An organizations culture basically defines an employees role. Being aware of the organizational culture at all levels is important because it is the culture that defines appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In some businesses, for example, creativity is stressed. In others, the status quo is valued. Some cultures are more socially oriented, while others insist task-orientation. Corporate performance depends a lot on this match between the individual and corporate values. Effective management involves maintaining a balance between the two. The core values of KBR are intrinsic to its organizational culture, built upon the highest standards of safety, transparency, disciple, financial accountability among others. KBR has developed an organizational culture where its fundamentals are based on delivering benefits to its customers, shareholders, communities it serves and to its employees. Such an organizational culture has helped KBR to be premier organization delivering projects and services to a global marketplace. Culture acts as a constraint on the actions of managers and workers. Explore how the culture of an organization has impact on both the leadership and the organization structure of the organization. Culture within a company has a huge impact on leadership and the decison making process. Of all the implications, an organizations culture determines the leadership styles and whether the decision making is top down or bottom up. In a top down approach, the leadership is autocratic. Decisions are taken and merely passed down the channels without any inputs from the technical experts who, mostly, are at the bottom of the organization structure. In a bottom up culture, decisions are partly taken by the actual job floor, within their scope. In such a set up, innovative ideas are generated and the company usually fares well because it harnesses the power of many. Entrepreneurial setups, like KBR tend to have a flat organizational structure. Organizational cultures derived from the nature of businesses also define the organizational structure. Heavy equipment manufacturing set ups and Investment Banks usually tend to have flat structures. This is so to allow the management to control the dynamically changing market trends and customer preferences which are very important for them. On the other hand an FMCG company usually has a tall structure. Primarily because of their long distribution, acquisition and logistics chain; and because the customer preferences are fairly stable. Explain the issue of motivation theories, the motivational policies used in the case and its impact on the individual and organization performances. Stephen P. Robbins defines motivation as â€Å"The processes that account for an individuals intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.† Motivation, in the modern Organizational context is one of the most important and underlying factors which drives every employee performance. Different scholarly theories have been put forward in the understanding of motivation and its effects on organizational efficiency. The most recognized of these are the Maslows Need Hierarchy Thoery, Douglas Mc Gregors Theory X and Thoery Y, Frederick Herzbergs Two Factor Theory. Maslow states that innate in every employee is a hierarchy of needs- Physiological, Social, Esteem, and Self- Actualisation; in order. He explains that as and when each need is substantially fulfilled, an employee looks to satisfy the next need on the Grid. To retain the most able of its talent, an organization has to dynamically map its personnels competency and their satisfaction levels. Calculated incentives have to be offered to satisfy the next level. Douglas Mc Gregor states that there are two states of human psychology and every compensation structure has to be devised keeping them in mind. Theory X is to be followed by the management when it feels that its employees pessimistic- they dislike work, avoid responsibility, have little ambitions and must be conyinuously supervised. Theory Y is to be used when the employees are optimistic they like work, are self directed, need little supervision. Frederick Herzberg states that certain factors result in job satisfaction, the absen ce of these result in job dissatisfaction. He distinguished them as Motivators responsility, recognition, challenging work, among others and Hygiene factors such as salary and job satisfaction. Motivators give positive satisfaction and hygiene factors do not motivate. But, if absent result, they lead to dissatisfaction. KBR and ADSL have good motivational practices in place. Firstly, it offers its employees a place in an organization that has been growing at a very impressive pace. This results in the employees being secured of their jobs and a chance to grow along with the organization. In tough economic conditions, like the present, job security is amongst the most important motivator which drives an employee performance. It offers a wide range of career opportunities. With clearly defined job specifications and responsibilities, it allows the employees to work in their areas of excellence. KBR recruits the most competent of the managers. Many a times, the primary reason for high attrition rates is the management. With high caliber people in the management, its employees will have the right direction. Such motivators, amongst others, have resulted in KBR being a place where employees work to their full potential. Efficient workforce has resulted in KBR now being one of the most admired business conglomerates. Examine the nature of a team, its structure and how it has an impact on the organization performances. A team in an organizational context is simply, individuals working together towards a common business goal. There are a number of factors that define a teams structure and its success. Leadership: An effective team leader should possess the management skills to establish and maintain a positive working environment; motivate the team to take a positive approach towards the goal. Communication: Clear communication without any ‘noise. Established roles: The team should have clearly established goals and each members role within the framework. Teamwork is an important asset to any organization. Effectively managed teams improve business efficiency. The postulate that â€Å"whole is more than the sum of its parts† works well in a team space. Some of the positive outcomes of effective teamwork are: * Absenteesim becomes a lesser problem. * Decision making is quick. * Tasks are completed in a harmonious way. * Morale remains high. How effective do you think the company approach to people management will be in ensuring improved results and enhancing the change management process? ADSL and KBR have good human resource practices in place. With a global presence and diversified role offerings, it is amongst the most admired work places. The KBR culture nurses autonomy and independent thinking. At the same time, all its projects being team based, it is a place to excel in collaborative, team based activities. It has systems and practices in place for managing change in a systematic and planned fashion. The company treats its employees as its main assets. This is evident from its sophisticated people management culture. Historically, the biggest resistance to change has been the workforce. By managing its people well, it is assuring them continued growth and prosperity within the organization. This will result in change being implemented in a smooth fashion. Explain the way individual and organization behaves, linking this with the relevant theory that you are familiar with. How would these impact on any organisations change process? Individual and organizations are both separate entities. For an organization, its primary goal is the maximization of its stake holders value. For an individual, the personal goals could be earnings, social status, comfort, among others. These goals are naturally conflicting in nature. Individuals perceive Organizational goals, culture and values as impeding to their own goals. Organizations are ultimately made up of individuals, whose behavior and goals will ultimately affect organizational behavior. Individual traits that usually influence organizational behavior are the individual values, ethics, attitudes, personality and culture. These traits may influence organizational behavior, particularly inert in people responsible for creating the corporate culture, for example, the top management (Robbins and Judge, 2006). Individual values and ethics are one of the biggest determinants of organizational behavior. Individual personality is also one of the determining factors. Some of the personality factors which may influence organizational behavior are positivity/negativity, optimism/pessimism, work/social (Penner, Midili, Kegelmeyer, 1997). Cultural differences as well, affect organizational behavior. All these behavioral traits have negative/ positive impact on the Organization. For instance, an Asian employee, who expects a high power distance from their direct line might not work well under a Europeon management, which is more democratic. On the other hand, due to many caste systems in their home countries, they work well with teams of diverse backgrounds. The individual traits described above affect organizational behavior, the larger effects of these are likely to be from the top management. Effective management requires an understanding of these influences at workplace and to absorb them. Workforce is, perhaps, the biggest resistance to organizational change. Organizational change generates anxiety and resistance in employees, making it difficult to implement organizational change (Folger and Skarlicki, 1999). Any management personnels ability in achieving maximum benefits from change depends majorly on how effectively they create and manage an environment that minimizes resistant and encourages acceptance (Coetsee,1999). In order to facilitate a smooth migration from the old to the new, organizations must be competent in effective change management. The process of change management mainly involves in having those involved and affected to accept the proposed changes. Explain how the company has managed its change process and how it has benefitted from this management process? KBR has been responding to change quite well. The firm has undergone drastic changes to its approach since it began operations in 1901. It has diversified in scope and in scale. The business has changed from a small pipe manufacturing firm to a manufacturing conglomerate. The firm has been receptive to change in line with the changing market trends and business needs. Looking back at the number of acquisitions and divestments that KBR has made, it can be said that change management has been a planned and phased transition at KBR. The firm has benefitted from this change. It has been able to tap the growing manufacturing industry and establish itself as a premier enterprise in the area. Put forward some recommendations for future improvement The recent economic downturn has been amongst the most dreaded global disasters of recent times. The fundamentals of many established companies have been questioned and quite a few have failed in these testing times. Infrastructure, after financial services, has been the worst hit. There will be an enhanced pressure from the stake holders for better performance. Competition will be intense and businesses will be on the look out for innovative ways to help raise business. Risk management is of utmost importance. I believe ADSL has to beef up its risk management team. With a deal as long as 36 years, the business will surely see even more volatile periods. Firstly, ADSL has to concentrate on managing its partners better. It has to look to strike deals with its suppliers and hedge its risk exposures. Oil is one such example. There were times when Crude Oil prices rose to as high as over $50 a barrel. An year later, these prices softened by around 40%. Surely, if it had signed a forward delivery contract with its suppliers, it could have absorbed such a massive price change. It has to re engineer its financial flows of the deal. With 36 years of cash flows to happen, there is a high exposure to exchange volatility and inflation. It has to start implementing change in its Network management. A lot of companies, especially the banks, have been laying off its staff in big numbers. With the economy set to get better over the next two quarters, these companies have started a hiring spree; all at huge costs. ADSL should concentrate more on retaining its most able talent and not respond to short term market implications. KBR and ADSL have been responding to change, whether triggered by internal or external factors, quite well over the years. But, there is scale for improvement. The company, with its geographical spread, has leveraged the economies of scale. But there are a lot of economies of scope that it could exploit. Its been in existence for over a century and with its cash rich treasuries, it could diversify into a much bigger conglomerate. KBRs recruiting policy allows entry to all levels of the company. Though this might work good for junior and mid level management roles, it does not hold good for senior management. KBR has to change its behavior towards this area and concentrate more on succession planning. Successful companies have firm succession plans and many huge conglomerates do allow outsiders to take on senior level positions. The same has to be adopted at KBR. This becomes even more profound in the current scenario when information and data security is of prime importance. Bibliography: Ogbonnia, K.S. ,2007. Political party system and effective leadership in Nigeria: A Contingency Approach. Walden University, 2007, p.27 George J.M. 2000. Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence, Human Relations 53, pp. 1027-1055 Spillane, James P.,2004. Towards a theory of leadership practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies 36 (1): 3-34. Maslow, Abraham ,1954. Motivation and Personality.New York:. Harper. p. 236 Coetsee, L., 1999. From resistance to commitment. Public Administration Quarterly, pp. 204-222. Penner, L. A., Midili, A. R., Kegelmeyer, J. ,1997. Beyond job attitudes. Human Performance, 10 (2),pp. 111-130. Folger, R. Skarlicki, D., 1999. Unfairness and resistance to change, Journal of Organizational Change Management, pp. 35-50. Robbins, Stephen P., 2006. Organizational Behavior. [e-book] Prentice Hall International, Inc., Available at: http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~uwuf/pdfdatei/orga/Chapt1.pdf [Accessed 25 November 2009]. Organizational culture Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009. Organizational culture [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_culture [Accessed 10 April 2005]. Harris, Stanley G. (1994) Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking. Organization Science, Vol. 5,(3): pp. 309-321.

Data Envelopment Analysis and related literature Essay

As already stated, a rich history of literature and research which is demonstrating the importance of processes in analyzing the performance of an organization exists (Chase, 1981; Chase et al. , 1983; Levitt, 1972; Roth et al. , 1995). Especially, Roth et al. (1995; here and in the following) showed that the key drivers are process capability and execution in an empirical way. It was described in their study that an inappropriate design of certain processes and also the poor execution of a process can lead to process inefficiency, and that both process capabilities and people as major factors affect business performance. When estimating the performance of processes usually a number of different outputs have to be taken into consideration. Data Envelopment Analysis, the estimation method described in this chapter and used as a basis for measuring the efficiency of business processes, deals with these multiple outputs by the use of frontier estimation. In this process, it is specifically determined which relative performance amongst multiple inputs and outputs are present. This in turn is achieved by calculating ratios of weighted outputs to weighted inputs, and the determination of the relative efficiency (which is seen as the distance from a peer object to the best practice frontier) compared with the efficiency of other so-called Decision Making Units (Charnes et al. , 1978). Decision Making Units can be defined as firms or public-sector agencies, but also as single processes or process instances (Sengupta, 1995). Data Envelopment Analysis is therefore used in different areas of daily life, for example in education programs of schools, or the production and retail business (Metters et al. , 2003). The Data Envelopment Analysis method was introduced into the operations research literature by Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes in 1978 (see Charnes et al. , 1978). They presented it as a new nonparametric (meaning it is entirely based on the observed input-output data and not based on the assumption of a normal (Gaussian) distribution underlying the measured parameters) and multi-factor productivity analysis model (Sengupta, 1995). The Data Envelopment Analysis model as it was originally formulated by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes, later referred to as the â€Å"CCR model†, has the important and critical characteristic of the reduction of the multi-output, multi-input situation for each Decision Making Unit to that of a single â€Å"actual† output and a single â€Å"actual† input. In fact, the respective measurement of efficiency for a Decision Making Unit is identified by the original Data Envelopment Analysis model by developing the ration of weighted outputs to inputs to 3 he maximum under the assumption that alike ratios for every Decision Making Unit are not larger than one (here and in the following Frei et al. , 1999). This in turn results in a number of efficiency scores less than or equal to one, as well as a reference set of Decision Making Units identified as efficient. The method has also come to be known as the â€Å"input-output oriented model†, because by holding outputs constant and at the same time evaluating to what degree the inputs would have to be changed in order for a Decision Making Unit to be considered an efficient one, the overall efficiency score is determined. The also existing â€Å"output-oriented method† is very alike to the input-oriented method. Using this approach, the ratio of weighted inputs in relation to the outputs is minimized in order to be able to evaluate the actual amount that each Decision Making Unit’s outputs have the chance to be improved whilst holding the inputs on a constant level. In summary, in both cases, a Decision Making Unit identified as efficient has no potential for improvement, whereas as Decision Making Units seen as inefficient have efficiency scores that reflect the actual potential for improvement which is based on the achievement of other Decision Making Units. A proportional (linear) program must be carried out for each of the Decision Making Units to be able to define the relative efficiency scores. Because of the use of a linear function, the implied presumption is that the efficient frontier is piecewise linear. As a fact, the original model of Data Envelopment Analysis comes up with a ranking of the different Decision Making Units in the system in a scale of relative efficiency from the lowest to the highest, where the highest is considered to be one hundred percent efficient (Sengupta, 1995).

Sailing to Byzantium

Poetry means many things to people all over the world. Poetry is an outlet or artistic and creative way of telling a story or expressing your emotions. It is something that does not require a lot of skill, but imagination and feeling. â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† written by William Butler Yeats is a poem that speaks of the craving for something one cannot have and the immortality of people, art and intellect, and greatness. â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† is a poem based on the theme longing for something one cannot have. In this case the old man in the poem is yearning to be young and live on forever even when his time is up. To escape death and old age the man sails to Byzantium. Byzantium is the opposite of the old man. â€Å"The young in one another’s arms, birds in the trees† and â€Å"The salmon falls, the mackerel crowded seas† are lines from the poem that illustrate the youth and vibrance of Byzantium, the youth and viberance the old man desires. Throughout the poem there are lines that hint about the immortality of people and life. One can continue to live on forever spiritually or by being remembered for having a great achievement or a great impact. In the second stanza Yeats writes, â€Å"An aged man is but a paltry thing. The old man sees age as just a number. His body may be growing older, but his insides are youthful. In the third stanza Yeats writes â€Å"Into the artifice of eternity†. This line can translate into on the illusion of immortality. Finally, in the last stanza Yeats writes, â€Å"Once out of nature I shall never take my bodily form from any natural thing. † Yeats writes that once the old man has passed he will be remembered by a symbol or sculpture much like a royal emperor. He will be represented by any natural thing. In this poem it is important to the old man that he lives on forever in the magnificent paradise of Byzantium. In addition to the immortality of people, the continuous life of art and intellect were written about. In stanza one Yeats writes, â€Å"Caught in that sensual music all neglect, moments of unaging intellect. † These two lines illustrate the immortality of art and intellect. Though some may neglect the elders because the elderly seem to lose their intellect as they age, the older generations were basically bards of education and intellect. Intellect is something that is passed down from generation to generation, it is something that will live forever. â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† is a poem largely associated with greatness. Byzantium was a paradise. It consisted of salmon-falls, mackerel-crowded seas, gold mosaic walls, Grecian goldsmiths, and a royal emperor. Byzantium was magnificent, just like the idea of immortality. I think Yeats wrote about Byzantium and immortality together because they go hand in hand. William Butler Yeat’s poem â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† is a poem about greatness and all of its elements. Byzantium was a lively place where it seemed like anything was possible. It was a paradise to escape to. To me â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† is a poem of inspiration. The poem seemed to make the idea of dying meager because one can live on forever, even past their time.

Jackie Robinson The Colored Comet - 1362 Words

Nick Platek Mrs. Chudy/ Mr. Poitras Learning Fair 6 April 2016 Jackie Robinson: The Colored Comet â€Å"I am not concerned for your liking or disliking, all I care about is you respecting me as a human being,† Jackie Robinson once said (Jackie Robinson Quotes). Through his courage and bravery he was able to change the game of baseball by showing that everybody is equal no matter what color skin you are. He was inspired by his brother to stand up for his race and fight for equality. He was one of the best Major League Baseball players, which showed that just because he was black does not mean he was bad at baseball. Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo Georgia. He was the youngest of his Family. He had three brothers and one sister. His brothers were Mack Robinson, Edgar Robinson, and Frank Robinson. His sister’s name was Willa Mae Robinson. His father’s name was Jerry Robinson and his mother’s name was Mallei Robinson. They were in poverty all their life because Jackie’s dad left right after he was born. Their family got along very well and rarely ever fought. Jackie Robinson got along better with Mack. Mack was into sports and that is how Jackie was inspired to play sports from middle school through college. Jackie’s favorite sport while he was younger was track and field. His brother actually did very well in track too. While he went to Pasadena junior college, he did not play any sports, but as soon he went to the University of California, Los AngelesShow MoreRelatedJackie Robinson : The Colored Comet1384 Words   |  6 Pages Jackie Robinson: The Colored Comet â€Å"I am not concerned for your liking or disliking, all I care about is you respecting me as a human being,† Jackie Robinson once said (Jackie Robinson Quotes). Through his courage and bravery he was able to change the game of baseball by showing that everybody is equal no matter what color skin you have. He was inspired by his brother to stand up for his race and fight for equality. He was one of the best Major League Baseball players, which showed that skinRead MoreJackie Robinson Contributions to the Development of America1866 Words   |  8 PagesThe first man to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball in the 20th century, Jackie Robinson is, to this day, one of the most celebrated baseball players in history. It is only a few times in one’s life that they have the chance to know of someone who’s character could be digested in simply a sentence. Especially a complex person, a complex athelte. Although there aren’t many people like Jackie Robinson. A life is not important, he said, except in the impact it has on other lives. With