Watercooler Activity

Read the Watercooler Activity guidelines. Complete the Watercooler Activity document .

Note: For this week's Watercooler, find an article concerning the ethics of strategy, strategic management, or strategic thinking. This can include the ethics of leadership as it pertains to long-term vision, long-term decision making, and so forth. The goal is to find an article that can stimulate discussion about the responsibility of strategic leaders to their company and its employees, and to the company's shareholders and/or other shareholders. 

Follow the Watercooler Activity guidelines to submit a synopsis of the article. Your instructor will review these postings and select one article to be discussed by the entire class. Questions to consider during the class discussion will also be included.

Here is the guideline

Watercooler Activity

The watercooler has become a symbol in business life. It, or any common gathering place in an office slightly removed from the cubicles and desks, is a place to share information, both casual and vital, and to build networks with colleagues you don't necessarily see or interact with every day. The Watercooler activities throughout this course and program will help you get into the practice of looking beyond your metaphorical cubicle to seek out topical news stories and ideas and analyze them with your instructor and colleagues. Familiarity with current trends, topics, and events is an important element of your participation and success in the business world.

For each Watercooler activity, you will research current online journals to select an article of interest for this course. Using the following Watercooler template, write a brief synopsis, and the instructor will select one article from all of the class submissions and assign that article for the Discussion for that week. The Instructor will post the selected article to the Discussion area.

Look for full-text articles. Recommended keywords include: business strategy, innovation, creativity, collaboration, competitive advantage, early mover, technology, strategic planning, collaboration, and appropriability. You may also wish to search for articles pertaining to specific enterprises, countries, or regions.  

Use the following guidelines for your Watercooler assignment. Copy and paste these headings into a Word document. (See the exemplar following the guidelines.)

Name:

Date:

APA citation of the source:

A synopsis of the article. (100-150 words)

An analysis of the article and how it relates to the course topic of Business Strategy for Competitive Advantage. (100-150 words)

Exemplar for the Watercooler Application:

Name: Edward Garrett

Date: 4/23/09

APA citation of the source:

Petraco, A. (2008). Take it outside! Workforce management outsourcing. Workforce Management, 87(4). Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.

Part 1: Synopsis of the article

Personnel costs are among the highest for organizations. With an increasing trend toward globalization and remote workforces, many of the costs associated with the workforce become a burden on the organization, especially if costs are centralized but the employees are not. Outsourcing from either a single or multiple vendors can provide a viable and cost-saving solution. The benefits include reduced impacts on Payroll and Human Resources, as well as more precise data about employee activities and time tracking. Centralized access to information, such as policies, schedules, and time tracking when managed by an outside organization, reduce costs and enhance efficiency.

Part 2: Analysis of article based on the course topic

This article relates to the course content because it links the concept of outsourcing to strategic decisions about cost management and relations between personnel and the organization as a whole. It touches upon some of the lessons of organic growth strategy, namely the importance of employee satisfaction. In addition, it may work within a value innovation strategy as well; insofar as reducing costs for such activities as payroll and human resource information systems will allow an organization to free up resources and therefore lower costs in order to meet pricing goals. In addition, this article suggests that organizations consider viewing the outsourcing decision as a strategic calculation, analyzing the impact on the entire organization.