Task

1. Share ideas with your colleague below about how he can address the questions he has posted.

2. Make recommendations for refining his research topic.

Dear all,

I was looking at the cultural aspect and organisational development. With such remarks, I have searched for the best point of centralization to obtain maximisation of understanding and to coordinate with the different departmental groups or organisations. Consequently, I have tried to see how the abilities of the operations managers can be affected to gather and combine various strategies of the coordination and collaboration of the partners and business units. All that to successfully manage global relation between distinct groups of the supply chain network and understanding social and cultural matters.

Therefore I have decided to perform the search through the Roehampton Online Library to assist me in finding of the clarification of my topic. I have used following keywords:

Collaboration, culture, operations managers, supply chain

In the first article according to Fawcett et al., (2008) supply chain collaboration involves the sharing of resources information, people, and technology among supply chain members to create synergies for competitive advantage and creating efficient integration within the supply chain. Therefore the role of the operations managers is to find the way to overcome the cultural matters that are affecting supply chain collaboration. In that case Fawcett et al., (2008) argued that we have two theories that are essential when analysing operations managers' role: contingency theory, and force field theory. Mentioned theories are fundamental to assist managers in uncertainty and changes within the external environment and dynamics of changes within the supply chain.

In the second article Ali et al., (2016) observe the vulnerabilities of the supply chain and the risk that can be involved to maintain collaborative efficiency. In that reason, Ali et al., (2016) argued that moderating role of collaboration are in managing risks and improving firm performance in a supply chain through the resources such as information sharing, decision synchronisation, resource sharing, collaborative communication, goal congruence and incentive alignment. Therefore we can also find what strategy operations managers are more appropriate in the presence of a variety of risk categories and to understand how we can monitor internal and external environments to reduce risks effectively to achieve beneficial outcomes for the supply chain as a whole (Ali et al., 2016).

In the third article, we researched the role of the managers in the creation of the strategic alliances between the partners facing cultural matters that are causing difficulty in coordination of the supply chain. For example, Boddy et al., (2000) classified that cooperation may enable partners to achieve a stronger position together than they could alone. Consequently to create partnering were companies expect a long-term relationship, develop complementary capabilities, share more information and engage in more joint planning.

After looking at the tree different aspect, we found three distinct elements that play a significant role in supply chain collaboration including the role of the operations managers. We believe that there is needed for more profound research in order to understand not only the collaboration but also the impact that produce on the supply chain and the organisation.

We found that also we have to analyse the risk and possibilities of the alliances that can be challenging for the supply chain and corporate strategy.

References:
• Ali, I, &Shukran, K 2016, 'MANAGING SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS AND VULNERABILITIES THROUGH COLLABORATION: PRESENT AND FUTURE SCOPE', Journal Of Developing Areas, 50, 5, pp. 335-342. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 08/08/16).
• Boddy, D, Macbeth, D, & Wagner, B 2000, 'IMPLEMENTING COLLABORATION BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNERING', Journal Of Management Studies, 37, 7, pp. 1003-1017. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 08/08/16).
• Fawcett, S, Magnan, G, & McCarter, M 2008, 'A THREE-STAGE IMPLEMENTATION MODEL FOR SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATION', Journal Of Business Logistics, 29, 1, pp. 93-112. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 08/08/16).