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is to be sure that the company is ready to execute new IT strategy and deliver new service. Using process mapping skills, process designers are able to evaluate existing processes and remove the no-value-added activities (Soliman 1998), so that, following the ―bottom-up‖ strategy, they can integrate different processes to increase operation efficiency (Bititci and Muir 1997).
3.4 People
In this area, an organization determines the human resource policies of recruiting, selecting, training, and development. In m-service industry, employees with multiple competences are more highly respected in comparison to traditional employees with only single, consummate ability. Good employees must be equipped with sufficient knowledge to understand customers’ demands and have the basic decision-making ability to solve various problems. Internally, a good m-service worker needs good communication and collaboration skills to integrate corporate resources and teamwork capability for working within an interdepartmental group.
3.4.1 New Employee Recruiting
Employee recruiting policy focuses on two major factors: environment evaluation and the employee’s competences and characteristics. With respect to environment evaluation, the work itself and the organization structure are two factors considered when measuring whether an employee is suitable for the job opening. On the other hand, hiring employees with various specialties is beneficial for interdepartmental project teams and first-line workers’ empowerment. Employees need to have sufficient knowledge to deal with problems on the spot.
3.4.2 Training
Organizations usually ask existing employees to take part in a series of training programs. The skill center provides teaching courses specifically designed to improve employees’ skills in handling newly adopted IT production procedures. Employees are trained to have integrated skills, instead of focusing on a single one. Well-trained workers make essential contributions to an organization by creatively coming up with solutions to solve operational difficulties and by applying their skill sets to the tasks at hand; these contributions are essential to keeping a company competitive in the changing business environment.
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3.4.3 Leadership
Traditionally, leadership has been considered as a manager’s capability to administrate present resources and competences to improve the efficiency of the company’s operations. It tends to focus on managing internal process, such as the production process, cost reduction, product quality, and sales volume. In present times, however, additional skills must be added to the scope of leadership in order to stay competitive in today’s consumer-driven market.
Nowadays, a manager is expected to be able to explore new business opportunities that will lead to organizational innovation and business growth. New leadership focuses on both the internal and external business environment. On one hand, a manager must play an interactive role as a good communicator and organizer;
he should be able to coordinate between different departments and group together an interdepartmental project team that effectively executes business strategy. He must lead the organizational learning to find out new solution for improving operation efficiency. On the other hand, a manager must be an outstanding observer and integrator. Watching the variation of market and seeking potential opportunities, a manager must constantly adjust operational policies and integrate both inside and outside resources to keep his company competitive (Applegate and Elam 1992;
Grover et al. 1993; Earl and Feeny 1994; Feeny and Willcocks 1998; Smaltz et al.
2006; Chen et al. 2010).
3.5 Reward System
The reward system is the most efficient instrument through which an organization may provide motivation and incentives for the completion of work (Kerr and Slocum 1987; O’ Reilly 1989; Brown 1995). Strategically, a good reward system wouldn’t improve operational effectiveness directly, but indirectly, by motivating employees to create new knowledge, share existing knowledge, assist others in completing assigned tasks. That is to say, the optimal reward system would weaken organizational resistance and encourage employees to work hard under new IT policies.
Organizational learning and interdepartmental cooperation would be indirectly influenced as well; as a result, the company would be pushed forward in the strategic direction.
In place of the seniority-based system, a performance-based appraisal system
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which focuses on individual’s competences is most often adopted in contemporary companies (Milikić 2007). An employee is rewarded based on his achievements and overall impact on the organization’s performance. In particular, the abilities to find business flaws and promote innovative ideas are especially valued in a successful corporation.
Besides offering substantive remunerations, an organization should also emphasize mental encouragement. Encouragement would motivate an employee to devote himself to work, promote self-learning, and create a sense of honor and loyalty to the company as well. Furthermore, a company who highly respects its employees will be more likely to attract the top talents in the job-seeking market (Leonard-Barton 1992).
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CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this research, a case study was used to verify our framework. We chose to study a major organizer of the exhibition industry in Taiwan and an academic research center that helps the former company build mobile service platforms. First, we will introduce the case background and mobile service platform in this section, and then we will analyze the data to match the five dimensions proposed in our model.