The impact of motivation on the productivity of the employees in industrial sector in Oman

Introduction

Motivation is one of the most important tools of human resource management as it can be used to improve the employees' performance and improve the productivity of the business organization. In industrial sectors in Oman, motivation is used in many different ways to urge employees and increase their enthusiasm to do work better and to achieve better desired results.

Industrial sectors in Oman are important to improve the country's economy and strengthen business movement in it. They focus on human resources and try to find effective methods for getting the best outcomes from the human resources that are considered a basic asset that needs to be invested in. This is done through applying motivation that can be monetary and non monetary through rewards, recognition and other means.

The current report is discussing motivation and its impact on employees' productivity in the industrial sectors in Oman. It presents an overview for motivation definition, types and how it can be used by the organization's management to improve productivity. There is a presentation for some managerial challenges that can be solved by implementing motivation such as employees' turnover and change management. The report also discusses how motivation can be used in the industrial sector of Oman and how this can be applied to improve its productivity.

Research questions

1. What is motivation and what are its types?
2. How does HRM use it to affect the productivity of employees?
3. How can motivation face different managerial challenges such as employees' turnover and implementing change in industrial sector in Oman?
4. How can motivation improve the Omani economy through its implications in the industrial sector?
5. What can be done more to motivate employees better in industrial sector in Oman?

Research objectives

1. Understanding motivation and its different types.
2. Realizing how motivation can be well applied by HRM.
3. Investigating the impact of motivation on productivity.
4. Finding out how motivation in industrial sector in Oman can face challenges.
5. Realizing the relationship between motivation and economy.
6. Suggesting ideas to improve employees' motivation in industrial sector in Oman.

Literature Review

According to Al Araimi, (2013) motivation can be defined as moving employees' behaviors towards better performance and higher level of achieving the organizational goals; it can be applied by understanding employees' needs and raising their morale through effective methods and techniques.

Ganta, (2014) discussed motivation and its types referring to Extrinsic motivation which is the motivation that depends on external factors surrounding the employees such as their need to be promoted, the need to have a monetary reward, being known as a good employee or any other material achievements. Milne, (2007) discussed the Intrinsic motivation is that type of motivation that comes from the inside of the individual as employee' enjoyment and happiness to perform well, their feeling of belonging to the work organization, their need to feel appreciated and respected for good work and any other achievements that are not material.

Lai, (2011) discussed how motivation can be applied by the human resource management and confirmed that management has to realize the needs of employees before implementing methods of motivation; he referred to the different needs of employees through Maslow's needs and explained that each employee has to be focused on individually to understand how to raise his morale through motivation. Adair, (2006) confirmed that motivation can solve different problems in the business organization such as turnover as motivation can raise morale of employees and raise their feeling of belonging to the organization which in turn improves their performance and increases their productivity.

The industrial sector in Oman has two main parts which are the public sector and the private one. Both sectors focus on motivation to improve the productivity of employees. This can be regarded through views of authors such as views of Powmya and Zainul, (2014) who discussed how industrial sectors in Oman are facing different challenges related to modernization and urbanization in Oman as these changes lead to new market needs and difficulties in finding market opportunities. Back, (2012) explained that these challenges made employees are in need for more motivation to provide better performance and better business outcomes.

When organizations apply motivation effectively, they can overcome challenges such as turnover as according to Swailes and Fahdi, (2010) voluntary labor turnover rates are very high and are increasing in Public sectors of Oman and Omnization can't solve the problem so there must be serious solutions for facing the problem through providing employees with motivation that can improve their performance, retain them and improve productivity.  statistics from the Omani Civil Service (Ministry of National Economy, 2010) show that there were 8400 new appointments in the year 2008 half of which were women and 4180 employee left the Service. The number of Omani nationals resigning in 2008 was more than 54% on the previous year in spite of the fact that they receive high salaries. Reasons for leaving work included passive effects such as lack of communication, conflicts, stress and being in places where employees are not relaxed or feeling good. Latham, (2012) explained that employees are in need to a work environment that can motivate them to do better and feel belonging to the place they work in. Motivating employees don't mean to raise their salaries only but it means to provide them with the suitable work environment where they can communicate their problems with their leaders and express their feelings that may cause stress in the work environment. This means that non-monetary rewards such as parties, recognition, promotion and developing the work environment physically and psychologically can help motivate employees in order to raise their morale, communicate the organizational goals with them and encouraging them to do better and raise productivity of the business organization. (Swailes and Fahdi, 2010)

Motivation is highly related to change management as according to POHANKOVÁ, (2010) change can be considered a big challenge in many business organizations and motivation can help managers implement change effectively. Many organizations in the industrial sector of Oman are applying change to cope with the local and international changes and developments and to cope with globalization requirements; change may lead to difficulties when management try to implement it so management has to motivate employees to implement change. Motivation can help in encouraging employees, raising their enthusiasm to implement change. They need to understand change to be motivated and to have enough time for being trained to apply such change. McMillan et al, (2009) asserted that change is a main organizational driver for success and this makes motivating employees to apply change very essential for reaching success easily and fast. They confirmed that motivation can be used to encourage employees to do certain required behaviors that can raise the company's productivity such as applying change as they depended on the expectancy theory as when managers try to improve employees' expectations about their future career, they can make them apply changes and improve the company's productivity.

Brown, (2007) explained that motivation is used in the industrial sector in Oman in a way to improve productivity of different business organization as this can return with great benefits on the Omani economy as motivating employees can be involved within the general plan for development initiated by the Omani government to improve the Omani economy. This is confirmed in the views of Al Alawai and Mishra, (2016) as they confirmed that motivational factors can lead to higher economic growth in Oman as the motivational factors can help improve productivity in different industrial fields. They confirmed that there should be specific reward systems and performance appraisal systems to be used for motivating employees and encouraging them to do better. According to International Business Publications, (2009) this can be done with the help of the Omani Industrial Zone and guidance from the government for both public and private industrial sectors. Encouraging motivation can improve productivity through encouraging the local entrepreneurs to develop their businesses which will help the Omani economy. Motivation can be used to encourage business organizations to be more creative and provide new innovations to the local market as such products can be internationalized in order to increase productivity and profitability that can both help the Omani economy.

Al Hakmani and Bashir, (2014) confirmed on the need for training managers of different business organizations in the industrial sector in Oman with the help and efforts of the government and the General Institution for the Industrial Zones of Oman and raising managerial awareness about the different models and techniques that can be used to motivate employees. Shah and Gardner, (2008) explained that these training programs should aim at focusing on managers' perceptions of the motivation factors and training them on different leadership styles that can be better in motivating employees such as transformational leadership style that can encourage employees to communicate well and can be more flexible in applying different motivational techniques and types.

Al-Harthy, (2008) discussed how motivation can represent a challenge for different industrial sectors in Oman as he confirmed that motivation should be based on a deep analysis for employees' needs and ambitions and should address these needs and try to meet them. Ushioda and Dornyei, (2009) also stated that motivation type should be chosen by the managers based on the employees' needs and wishes in addition to stressing the positive ideas and innovative ideas by motivating those employees who present such ideas. Adjei, (2009) confirmed on the need for applying theories and practice for motivating employees in the industrial sector and mentioned the goal setting theory that depends on setting goals that are difficult and need high efforts for achieving the goal and this can improve productivity as all employees will be engaged in teams where they can achieve the difficult goals that are clear and reachable but need creative efforts, time management and cooperation. Mentioned also the equity theory that depends on presenting rewards in a fair way without distinguishing between employees as regarding feelings and perceptions of employees is effective in making them motivated and work hard to improve productivity. Wiseman and Hunt, (2007) mentioned another theory that is the reinforcement theory that depends on controlling the behavior consequences through shaping it as employees' behaviors are very important to be considered when leaders are motivating them, positive behaviors have to be rewarded and recognized, pay rise, promotions and monetary rewards are effective for rewarding positive behaviors.

To improve motivation in the Omani industrial sector, there should be great efforts from the government at first to encourage local and foreigner entrepreneurs to develop and expand their businesses in Oman. This can lead to using different methods for motivation such as monetary rewards, recognition, celebrations, appreciation, promotion and empowerment of employees. Theories should be effectively implemented by managers in order to ensure better motivation. This can help improve productivity and enhance company's competitiveness in the local and international markets.  To improve motivation in the industrial sectors in Oman, there should be deep analysis for employees need, good knowledge about motivation theory and effective application for them. To add changes in the different industries in both public and private sectors, managements in the industrial zone of Oman tries to focus on urging business organizations to motivate their employees to bring in better results. This can be done through different drivers to motivate employees such as focusing on finance issues, knowledge and training of employees, the business strategy, leadership of organizations and opportunities for empowering and retaining employees. Motivating employees can raise their morale and provide them with the needed empowerment for improving their experiences and preparing them for having better positions in the business organization. This can help in retaining employees and reducing rates of turnover that passively affects the organization's productivity and profitability.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to stress the importance of motivation to business organizations such as the organizations of the industrial sectors in Oman as motivation can have a great impact on productivity. Motivation can increase and improve productivity of business entities as it is moving the behaviors of employees towards the better performance which can improve productivity. There are different types of motivation such as intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation and managers should be able to use each of them based on the nature and behavior and needs of their employees. Motivation should address employees' needs. The industrial sectors in Oman try to develop their management systems to focus on motivating employees to improve productivity and they should get enough help from the Omani government. Motivation can help management face challenges such as employees turnover and change management. Motivation has a relationship with economy as when employees are ell motivated, this encourages them to do more efforts that encourage entrepreneurs to have more business locally and internationally which improves productivity and enhances the Omani economy.

SQSM Oman Arab Bank

Introduction of the chosen organization

Oman Arab Bank SAOC is a great financial institution that was built in Oman in 1984 for presenting financial services for the Omani people such as loans services, depositing money, helping in establishing local projects and online services for money transfer and online purchasing. OAB has been expanding and developing its services to cope with the changing environment of the financial market locally and internationally and to increase its productivity and profitability depending on a strong operation management that is keen on developing the bank and achieving its organizational goals. The bank's operation management tends to provide innovative services of high quality to its customers including Islamic banking, investment banking, online banking, retail banking, trade finance, corporate and project finance and different ATM machines with the latest trends in credit, debit and master cards services for enabling its clients be able to make easy money transactions and different financial processes and projects with the help of the bank's services. The bank is also trying to meet the needs and wishes of its customers by applying new services they look for such as the Islamic banking services that was highly requested from the Omani society and the Arab world especially in the Gulf area.(oman-arabbank, 2016)

• AC 1.1: Explain the importance of effective operations management in achieving organizational objectives

Any business organization that seeks achieving its organizational goals should focus on having effective operations management as this can help the organization set its objectives clearly and plan to achieve them. OAB has main objectives which are providing customers with the most advanced and up to date banking services, reaching good productivity, achieving high profits and improve the bank's total quality levels. Operation management that is effective can enhance the bank's productivity by ensuring efficiency of all the bank's operations and plan for achieving its organizational goals; operation management should be the main tool that the bank uses to improve its total quality which is a major objective and this can be achieved if operation management is run by efficient managers who are well aware of their strategic roles, able to control the operations systems and can guide employees well for achieving the bank's organizational goals and are working according to the bank's vision and for achieving its values. As operation management is a functional business field; it should state each employee and manager's responsibility clearly and distribute roles fairly through an organizational plan that is timely scheduled and are set according to what is required to achieve the organizational objectives. In Oman Arab Bank, operation management is used in an efficient way to ensure sustainability of efficient work as the bank's operations management focuses on running all the bank's activities for the purposes to achieve the organizational goals as resources of the bank such as human resources are chosen carefully to ensure having talents and experts who are skilled and have advanced training in different relevant banking issues that may develop yearly and require such skills and experiences to cope with the development occurring in local and international changes in banking and financial markets. (Mahadevan, 2010)   

• AC 1.2: Evaluate the success of existing operations management processes in meeting an organization’s overall strategic management objectives

Managing the business operations is the most important managing process as it helps the business organization meet the overall strategic management objectives through the different processes involved within operation management and these processes need to be efficient and inclusive for all the business's activities. OAB depends on its operation management processes to achieve its strategic management objective as there are special operation managers who are responsible for decision making, planning, motivating employees and organizing work as they set the bank's objectives as the main target that activities of the bank are all going around  and they are also responsible for stating the activities meant for achieving the objectives such as dealing with the bank's clients, presenting the services, advertising the bank's services and offers and controlling the online banking services and ATM machines services as tasks are distributed to each department of the bank; the bank also depends in its operation management on partially decentralization in order to enable head departments to act as operation managers and guide employees towards achieving the bank's total strategic objectives. OMA also depends on delegating authorities as power is delegated among employees and managers in order to enable individuals to work as operation managers in the future and to have good relationships with their managers and the work which enables them to achieve tasks effectively yet the bank is also asked to achieve continuous evaluation for the processes involved within operation management in order to maintain sustainable efficiency of such processes and the bank can get aids from the time to time auditing processes in addition to evaluate the delegation of power and authority processes in order to get effective operation management processes. ( Barnes, 2008)

• AC 2.1: Explain the importance of effective quality management in achieving organizational objectives

Achieving the organizational objectives require the business organization to have effective quality management as quality management can ensure quality in all areas of the business and ensures the products or services are presented to clients on high levels of quality in a way that meets customers' expectations and may exceed them. Effective quality management in OAB is considered very important as quality management in the bank cares for establishing the policies, processes and procedures that are connected to all the business activities following the latest and most updated quality standards in banking services as the bank management is keen on ensuring the continuous maintenance of its ATM machines and online sites in addition to presenting new banking services related to loans systems and new banking systems such as Islamic banking that depends on Shariaa and has different systems for interests and deposits and loans that suit the common requests of Muslim customers for this Islamic banking service. Oman Arab Bank has added quality management practices that are suitable and coping with the international quality standards in order to enable its clients to enjoy services that are highly needed by the current financial society such as the service of SWIFT codes for money transfer among countries of the world and Oman in order to facilitate money transfer among banks of the world easily and with high quality and reach customer satisfaction by having services with the least risky potentials which helps achieve the bank's organizational objectives. Effective quality management can help the organization realize any demerits and then to find solutions for them as in Oman Arab Bank, the operation management makes regular observation and monitoring on the different tasks and this helps in identifying what employees really lack and how to support them in order to fill the gaps in skills and experiences as this can be done by training them either inside the bank or outside it. (Evans, 2016)                                    

• AC 2.2: Evaluate the success of existing quality management processes in meeting an organization’s overall strategic management objectives

In Oman Arab Bank, there are quality management systems that are based upon making regular check on different quality areas in the bank as the bank adapts a quality management process that aims at achieving high quality levels on all services and operations of the bank; the bank's existing quality management processes are based on achieving the bank's overall strategic management objectives by identifying certain techniques for measuring quality such as international ISO standards applied on banking systems and other testing solutions such as the Paragon software as the bank licensed FASTest for POS (Point of Sale) from the Paragon Application Systems (Paragon) in order to simulate and test the bank's used ISO 8583 financial message formats in the bank's payment infrastructure. This custom POS format was set by Paragon for OAB for supporting the bank's unique specifications.( paragonedge, 2014) The bank is then measure the quality levels in all its operations in order to improve the quality levels and it follows different criteria in making such evaluations such as the Evaluation of quality culture that tends to enhance the culture of quality in the bank, Efficiency of process criteria and the Evaluation for principles of sustained success management as this tends to ensure sustainability in all areas of quality in the bank. The bank uses auditing techniques to measure the degree of quality applied in all its processes and then applies evaluation on resources and materials to measure the costs and profits gained by evaluation. (Evans, 2016)                                

• AC 3.1: Plan a strategic quality change to improve organizational performance

According to Weinmann, (2016), in order to plan a strategic quality change for improving the bank's organizational performance; there are main steps that are important to plan this strategic quality change which are:

1. Making Categorization for OAB preliminary position.
2. Applying monitoring and measuring for the bank's position.
3. Checking the plan's direction.
4. Making efforts for achieving the plan's objectives.

The first step to apply such a change via a plan means to make deep assessment for the bank's quality change process in order to make effective analysis for the current strategic quality situation for the bank and identify its good and bad sides and reasons behind them. Then comes the next step which is progress monitoring and measuring for the bank's position and the plan's progress as quality management is to be checked from time to time in order to make sure that quality is done as required and according to the set measures that ensure achieving the organizational strategic objectives. After that comes the third step which is to check the direction of the quality application and to make sure that change is going into its right and desired way to achieve desired outcomes associated with achieving the organizational objectives and evaluation can be done by following methods to measure quality management in accordance with the international quality standards. The last step or part of the plan is to make sure that all efforts are exerted to assert quality assurance and to make sure that the plan of quality change is done perfectly and effectively in order to make sure of its success. (Balding, 2011)     

• AC 3.2: Define resources, tools and systems to support business processes in a strategic quality change

For defining resources, tools and systems that can support the business processes in a strategic quality change, it is important to stress that these three categories form the strategic quality change. Resources, according to Nickols, (2016) resources in OAB are those financial resources and human resources; the financial resources in the bank represent a great stability as it is a financial institution that need to have enough money, enough different types of currencies to satisfy the needs of the market and clients. The human resources are those employees and managers who support the quality change as they represent the manpower and the talents that the bank invests in and they the second priority in the bank's main assets after its financial resources. (Brown and Seidner, 2012) Tools can be defined as being the main techniques and values used to apply quality change in the bank as the techniques can represent the quality perspectives that help the organization achieve the needed quality levels while values are other tools that human resources depend on as they should have the values that are considered the tools that enable them apply quality change and ensure its sustainability. Systems are defined as the programmed plans set for satisfying customers and meeting their needs as this in general relies on the bank's resources both financial and human as they can with the effective tools achieve the perfect strategy quality change.  (Balding, 2011)     

• AC 3.3: Evaluate the wider implications of planned strategic quality change in an organization

In OAB; the planned strategic quality change has many wider implications and can be evaluated using the quality control, value manufacturing and operation management as the quality control can evaluate the strategic quality change as it can set a level of quality to measure the planned strategic quality change through checking the different activities of the bank such as the new services and how well they are presented to the clients and to measure the clients' satisfaction and at the same time the employees' satisfaction as it also sets measure for employees and makes different estimation tools to check the employees' and clients' satisfaction such as interviews, reports and questionnaires. The value manufacturing is another tool used by Oman Arab Bank for evaluating the implications of the planned strategic quality change as it checks the values employees have regarding quality and the bank's management makes regular checking on the ways employees use in asserting quality change through the plans set by the bank and this shows that the bank's employees are following the plan and its objectives. The plan set for OAB to achieve strategic quality change depends on operation management to integrate both quality control and values for the purpose of evaluate the implications of the plan by employing operation management activities to do this evaluation; in OAB the implications are all regarded through the activities of operation management. (Evans, 2016)                                

• AC 3.4: Design systems to monitor the implementation of a strategic quality change in an organization

In order to design systems for monitoring the strategic quality change implications in OAB, it is important to find a type for the design as well as the processing of developing the bank's services and strategic quality change implications as the four design systems for OAB can be the product design, the process design, the layout design and the network design, the product design system can be related to a certain product such as retailing banking service or Islamic banking service as the bank can focus on this specific service and monitor its implications in particular and check if they are done according to the required quality levels. The process design system can also be applied on services of Oman Arab Banks as it can be applied on the materials used to present the service such as the financial assets and on the methods of applying the service such as the way human resources deal with their customers and on the finishing of delivering the services such as profits that are presented to clients as all these processes should be checked and be done on a specific level of quality. The layout design is that design system that is related to where the service is delivered as it is related to demographic features such as those of Oman and the people living in Oman as for example, there should be specified for different social scales and categories as the quality of Islamic banking for example, can focus on including all the required activities to present high quality Islamic banking service that satisfy the clients and meet their needs. Layout can also refer to political conditions or geographic ones. The network design is another system that assimilates the previously mentioned four systems and it is based on making a network for connecting these three systems. (Hoyle, 2007)

 AC 4.1: Implement a strategic quality change in an organization.

For implementing a strategic quality change in Oman Arab Bank; it is important to make it effectively and have stated steps to follow as the first step can be having full awareness of the different business processes and then the next step comes that is analyzing those business processes and activities and making sure they are done effectively and on a high level of quality assurance and the third step is to make a comparison between the current processes and methods applied for the quality change and what was done in the past related to the processes and activities as the comparison will show that the progress rate the change is going on and how far the differences are between the current quality levels and the past ones in order to identify the performance gap and then to fill it which is the last step as this gap of performance must be filled through training employees on following the new levels of strategic quality change and to achieve their tasks on higher quality levels. (Braken, 2000)

• AC 4.2: Embed a quality culture in an organization to ensure continuous monitoring and development

In order to embed a quality culture in Oman Arab Bank for ensuring the continuous monitoring and development, it is important to include it into the bank's strategic plan for quality change and this culture should be applied on major parts which are the bank's vision, mission, values, strategy and goals. The bank's mission that represents the current position of the bank and its efforts done to improve the performance and reach higher quality as mission of the bank should reflect the level of quality that should be reached when the organizational goals are achieved and when the bank's objectives are fulfilled. The vision that should be realized and followed by all employees of the bank should also reflect the quality level as it can enable the bank's management to monitor if employees are applying the strategic quality change planned for and the vision can tell what employees need to do in future according to the quality change process and plan. The strategy of the organization should all reflect and represent the new quality levels required and all employees and managers should work according to this strategy in order to make development easy and outcomes represent the bank's goals as goals of the current stage the bank is encountering should also reflect quality that is needed in future to achieve the development and objectives of the bank. (Merrill, 2009)  

• AC 4.3: Monitor the implementation of a strategic quality change in an organization

In order to monitor the implementation of the strategic quality change in Oman Arab Bank; it is good to follow the four steps included in the implementation process and to monitor work in each step as at first all employees should be aware of presenting the business's process in the quality level needed for the change and they have to be asked about the new skills they have to master to implement the change and each of them should be evaluated and reports to be written about their performance. The business processes should be analyzed and then the work should be estimated by comparing it and monitoring it to write the main points that can describe the gaps in past work and current needs and after that all employees should be trained and divided into training groups based on the outcomes and the gaps found. (Merrill, 2009)

• AC 5.1: Evaluate the outcomes of a strategic quality change in an organization

The strategic quality change planned and applied in Oman Arab Bank can be evaluated according to the goals required to be reached and the levels of quality needed to be reached according to the improvement made in the bank's general and specific quality according to the different activities and missions done in the bank. Efficiency as well as effectiveness should be the basic and main measures that the evaluation focuses on as quality change is meant for developing them and filling the gaps in quality. OAB has developed its quality through the strategic quality change as resources should be investigated in order to check if they all have been used properly and effectively to improve the quality levels as the cost structure of the bank should be checked, profits should be measured and compared to last year profits as they have to be more and higher. The design and system of change can help the bank reach the best outcomes and satisfy customers as they have to be asked and their satisfaction can be measured through interviews and questionnaires in addition to calculating the number and scales of customers to check who joined the bank and made use of its services based on the new quality change. The system should help the bank reach competitive advantage and customer satisfaction as this can be measured through outcomes and profits in addition to the sustainability that should be applied on all activities and processes of quality. (Nickols, 2016).

• AC 5.2: Recommend areas for improvement to a strategic quality change that align with organizational objectives

Oman Arab Bank needs to improve its strategic quality change in order to meet the organizational objectives, raise productivity and profitability and reach both customers and employees' satisfaction in addition to reaching competitive advantage as the bank has to focus on sustainability of the strategic quality change on all areas of the business and to make sure that the new quality culture is well communicated among employees of all levels in order to make sure that they all work according to the new quality change mission and values as this will help in achieving the strategic goals and the organizational objectives. The bank is recommended to improve its internal and external environments that are related to the local and international financial markets. It is also asked to make more analysis for the Omani market such as the PESTLE analysis that can help in recognizing many areas related to the Omani market and to know the changing environment related to the banking industry as this analysis can show what changes occurred related to the social, political, economic, legal, environmental and economic areas in Oman which will help in updating the strategic quality change and make it coping with the new changes in the Omani market in the future. The bank is also recommended to evaluate all the levels of the strategic quality plan in relation to resources such as implementing it on the financial resources and checking how far it was useful to enhance the bank's capacity in relation to this resource as well as the human resources in order to check how far the human resources reacted to the strategic quality change and the implementations of it as this will help in developing the resources aligning with the change and in a way that makes it better when it is applied in the future and it can also fill the gaps of the current situation of the bank and its future situation. This can increase the bank's opportunities in being unique in Oman and perhaps open new markets or enter in new joint ventures with other international banks in order to gain better international opportunities and more success. (Balding, 2011)

Corporate Social Responsibility Oman Arab Bank

Introduction

Oman Arab Bank is a leading bank based in Oman and is considered one of the most important financial organization working since 1984 when it was first established.  It is an institution that has many clients who receive financial services such as keeping their money in the bank, doing bank transfer, investing in the bank, taking loans and other various activities. The bank is privileged with strong organizational structure which has good human resources that are considered among the bank's basic assets that the bank is investing in. The bank is established for serving Omani and non Omani people who live in Oman, it has many branches with a headquarter in Muscat city. The bank has a vision and goals that tend to provide its customers with all available services that can meet and satisfy their needs of financial service. The bank's policy is based on innovation as the bank is coping international banking system with the modern technologies of banking operations such as online services and ATM services as the machines of the bank are found everywhere in Oman to serve the public. The current assignment is discussing the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) according to Oman Arab Bank towards stakeholders and how the organization is applying CSR roles. The assignment will have an evaluation for the challenges of business ethics and its implications to Oman Arab Bank stakeholders in addition to providing a discussion for the theories of business ethics in relation to employees, consumers and government and how the theories are applied to the challenges. (Urip, 2010)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its roles towards shareholders

CSR is a mechanism related to organizations and it is self regulated and relevant to how the organization considers society, global ethics, environmental principles, legal standards and customers' compliance. It gives due care for both primary and secondary stakeholders. CSR importance has been understood by today's companies as a major means of enhancing the value of shareholders. Shareholders are major stakeholders in any business organization. CSR is the constant interest of a business organization to keep ethics and rights and quality of life to all stakeholders including the whole society. Yet this should be done with keeping CSR roles towards the business shareholders who are among the most important stakeholders of the business. There are some roles involved with CSR towards shareholders such as:

1. The economic responsibility towards shareholders

Shareholders needs are basically the company's revenue and good returns that should be kept and not reduced. CSR has a role in keeping the company's economics are stable through giving due care to what customers really need, maintain a high level of quality, monitor the hygienic measurements of the company's products, ensuring safety and security in all operations of the business and keeping an adequate level of legal background in all the business processes. All these factors help raise customers' confidence in the business services and products which in turn raises their activities with the organization and this in turn raises profits and revenues of the company which is a main goal of shareholders and one of the CSR responsibilities to be achieved towards shareholders.

2. Providing shareholders with a space of decision making

Most companies shareholders consider CSR as a constraint against their freedom to take decisions related with labors, workforce, funds or other relevant matters but this is not true as CSR is giving shareholders their usual rights of taking the decisions they think are good to their business and can increase its successfulness and achieve the goals of the business but at the same time shareholders should do all this without causing any harm to employees, the environment, ethics of the business and society rules. CSR is not meant to stop shareholders from sharing in the business operation methodologies but they provide them with the right way used to take decisions with having all the freedom regarding the business. (Mullerat, 2010)    

3. Being business oriented

This means that CSR works hard to reach a synergetic result through turning corporate resources to be suitable for issues and problems of the society that are coping with the business core values and mission so as not to let CSR affect the business movement and reduce revenues or profits of the company.

4. Being understood and trustworthy

Some shareholders of companies complain from the CSR being vague, difficult to be realized by them, having no clear goals, wasting the company's resources and is not deserving their trust.  Among the responsibilities of corporate social responsibility is to have a clear corporation approach and is able to engage shareholders in its activities in order not to put pressure over management that tries hard to make shareholders realize the vision and goals of CSR and how it can help the business upgrade. (Strauss, 2015).

Evaluation of the organization's application of CRS principles and practice and their implications for the organization's stakeholders

Basic CSR Principles of Oman Arab Bank and how they are implemented by the bank's practices with the bank's stakeholders

Respecting Human Rights

Oman Arab Bank respects human rights according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the bank's stakeholders' rights are well maintained through the practices of the bank as for example, the customers' personal data are well preserved and secured, their rights in receiving respect and good care and in complaining are ensured by the bank's management. Other stakeholders such as shareholders have also their full rights of decision making, participating in the business operations and receiving their profits clearly. The bank also care for the society, people and environment rights that are related also to human rights through sharing in charity associations and social events and provide Omani society with aids. Employees rights are all ensured with good salaries, respect, health care and suitable environment.

Maintaining Sustainability

The bank is developing its business to be profitable and participating in local communities' events in order to achieve the bank's goals of organizational success along with social development. For example, in 2014, Oman Arab Bank was the sponsor of Salah Tourism Festival and this is done yearly by the bank to affirm its believe in CSR. This strategy is based upon the deep knowledge of CSR management in the bank as all about Oman society is discussed and realized through consultants and authorities and the social information is being available to the bank's staff in order to arrange for important events. (Observer, 2014)

Keeping  Diversity

Oman Arab Bank doesn't make any discrimination of any level in all its processes, operations and events as there aren't any discriminations between any people on bases of religion, sex, nationality, ethnic origin, race, disability, education or any other discrimination can occur to its stakeholders whatever they are. Respect is shown to all people and equity is ensured, for example, the bank is providing its services for all people from all nationalities with the same level and the bank is having an Indian service as being tied up with an Indian banking service to provide easy access to the bank by Indian resident in Oman and also other nationalities. (Omanarabbank, 2015)

Dialogue

This is basically based on letting the company enter into an open dialogue with all stakeholders in order to reach a general overview of the needs and requirements of stakeholders and work hard to meet them. Managers of OAB tend to use this with employees and customers as well through discussing the problems and complaints of them and reaching solutions for them. 

Integrity

Integrity is maintained on all levels of the bank through honesty and fairness in the bank's dealings as bribery or corruption is not found and the bank is enjoying a good reputation. Selectivity is a principle to be practiced with all operations of the bank as the best quality services are only used and provided to customers and the best HRM policies are used with all employees in addition to shareholders' care. This is implemented through the bank's works with government and with the civil society as well.  (Smith, 2011)

Discussion on the theories of business ethics

Descriptive theory with relation to employees, consumers and government

Business ethics can be discussed according to many theories such as the descriptive theory which refers to the ethical phenomenon, describe it and tell how people behave and why judge things to be good or bad. The descriptive theory of business ethics refers to employees and how they react to business situations in a good or bad way. It discusses the methods used by employees to deal with customers, their demands and how they attract those customers to purchase a good or a service. Descriptive theories also describes how consumers' behaviors can affect the business and lead to its failure or success according to different measurements of the market and different conditions. These descriptive theories discusses the role of governments and how they can affect the business, their laws, legislations and attitudes that can also improve or worsen a business. (McDonald, 2014)

Normative theory with relation to employees, consumers and government

The normative theories of business ethics are those theories that provide general principles and rules of business behaviors and relate them to many reasons. They include are the stockholder theory, the stakeholder theory, and the social contract theory. The shareholder theory discusses the social responsibilities through enquiries about people's well being, charity or social activities. It investigates how the company can share in such activities and in improving people's well being in order to attract more consumers as the major goal of any company is profit. It also discusses the nature of products and what consumers prefer, what the nature of consumers is and what are their demands. It discusses employees' needs and demands and methods to meet them and motivate employees in order to make them bring more profit for the business as profit is very important to the business. The theory provides an idea of how managers can be tools for inspiration for all employees in order to raise the business success and value. It also provides means of dealing with the government such as trying to reduce taxations by reducing activities that take lots of money from shareholders and are not increasing profits such as social events that are not important or famous enough to bring spent money back to the business. It supposes that governments should be the responsible for helping the public not shareholders and that the government duty is to help peoples of the community and when the business does this, there should be increase in its reputation and fame that may increase success and profits. (Hasnas, 1998)The stakeholder theory addresses all values and morals relevant to organizations' management. It deals with all stakeholders such as employees who are the corporation stakeholders and how they should be cared for by management through motivation and recognition. It provides an idea about the employees and the behaviors they should follow to get the best of the business. It also shows how consumers think and how the company can consider them, provide them with services and extra care through meeting their needs when producing a product or launching a service. The social contract theory is very old as it is a philosophical prospective assumes that there is an agreement between people and society about how to care for each other. As a business ethics theory, it regards business as a monitor for people's and society's norms, traditions and values. It sees employees as a part of the whole community and society where consumers is another part and government is a third part and all these parts should co operate. The business with its employees should follow regulations and governmental rules and employees should interact with the consumers as being a part of one society.(Fernando, 2009).     

Applications of the theories with the challenges

Banks are usually facing challenges related to business ethics such as providing clients with loans that the bank cannot afford, corruption issues, stealing, malpractice, embezzlement or other financial problems related to ethics. Oman Arab Bank is applying many principles of the pre mentioned theories in order to face and avoid such problems which are considered scandals. The bank follows the normative ethics theory of the stakeholders theory and the bank depends on a strong business model in order to face problems of risk taking. As managers and employees are both stakeholders, the bank develops a model of relationship between all stakeholders that is build on an open dialogue which declares all matters and reveal everything to the banks' shareholders. The bank is also employing the shareholder theory by revealing all the banks' operations to the shareholders and putting them on great responsibility in front of managers in order not to let them or some of them be involved in a fraud action without the knowledge of others shareholders. The bank puts consumers in an advanced priority with regard to following all governmental rules and laws which can control the bank's transactions, load systems and all other financial processes. The bank has a very strong management that is able to understand and evaluate the market, its size, needs of consumers, the banking and financial services they need and all relevant matters that reduce the risks of choosing wrong customers to get into big investments or important projects. Cost benefit analysis are made by the bank to know all circumstances of the business and measure it according to its costs and benefits. The bank also considers itself as an integrated unit within the society and realizes the risks that may affect the business as being related to worldwide ethical problems or local ethics. This helps the bank reach a good level of quality, trust and confidence to all its clients and among other banks in Oman and in the area as a whole.  (Wehinger, 2013)

Conclusion

To conclude, it is important to refer to how the business management of today developed to include intelligent strategies and modify them to suit the world conditions and the new technologies and concepts to be applied in business such as corporate social responsibility and how it can be applied. CSR is related to all the entity's stakeholders and to shareholders as a segment of those stakeholders. CRS has main principles that can be practiced and applied through a wise management system that understands the nature of all stakeholders and never neglects each of them. Business management also cares for the business ethics and how employees deal with the work and the customers so there are many theories to be applied on the business ethics in order to reach an acceptable level of ethics implementation within the business organization. Oman Arab Bank is a model of the business organization that knows the Corporate Social Responsibility as well as the business ethics as being shown above. The bank applies CSR within its business model in order to reach a good level of consumer satisfaction and a good level of profits that the bank's shareholders are seeking.

Managing and Leading Change

Introduction

Change management in business organizations is a process where individuals, organizations, teams and groups are all engaged in a shifting work for reaching a desired goal or state which is different from their current state and that can bring in more comfort or success to the business. Change can occur to individuals themselves, the organization structure, the methodologies used by the organization or in any other relevant area of the business. There are many stages and phases involved within the change process as change cannot occur suddenly, there are three main phases which are the first phase of preparing for the change which involves the preparation process, assessment process and strategy development. The second phase which is managing change involves planning for the change and implementing it and the third phase which is reinforcing change that involves collecting data about the change and make needed corrections. The current case of US Cellular Corporation presents how change can be ineffective and it suggests inquiries about reasons behind this as in the company there was a problem of the overload of emails that are sent between customers and co workers and the company's employees as when the CEO decided to make Thursday is free from email work, employees complained of the increased work load and problems. The current assignment is discussing how change management can be performed to improve the business performance through discussing types of change, analyzing the company's change and challenges, discussing leadership and change perspectives and making a plan for change management. (Reiss, 2012)

Analysis

Managing business change requires many things to be considered and this is important when the change is either big or small. At first, the business organization should identify the type of change it is going to involve its individuals in. Identifying the change's type helps in setting a good change plan and how to guide the business's human resources towards achieving the change. Types of change are three main which are the developmental change which is based upon steps that are performed for improving the current procedures and processes of the business in addition to making human resources well acknowledged of the way to implement the change and deal with any difficulties that may appear as a result of that change. Training is very important for the developmental change as employees should be well trained to achieve it. Another type of change is the transitional change which occurs to replace a current process within the business with new one or with new group of processes, this type of change is difficult when it is to be implemented and in most cases, it leads employees to feel discomfort with it. This type of change needs an assessment for the benefits and losses that may occur as a consequence for the change in addition to learn about employees' opinions about it during implicating it and providing employees with the required training. There is also the transformational change which is made to turn the business totally from a certain framework to another new one. Market changes can be a factor that leads to performing this type of change. (UAB, 2015) US CEO decided to make a change within the company in order to relieve workloads from the employees as each user of the emails used to send 150 messages and more daily. The change he suggested was to make Thursdays free from using emails at all and called them "No email Thursday" rule as this rule meant that on Thursdays employees have to meet and phone customers or answer them face to face and not on emails, this change was a transitional change as it occurred to replace a practice with another within the work program and it was difficult for employees who really felt uncomfortable with it as some of them told the CEO that the work was easier before and now they and there are challenges both the CEO and the employees face regarding the new change followed. The changes made in the US Cellular Corporate were all in the way work goes and this is very relevant to the employees themselves, their work and the way they perform it. The CEO had to discuss the changes with his employees before implementing them, he should have asked them if the change would help them or not and how far. The current situation of being puzzled whether to continue the ban on emails on Thursdays or not should reach a solution such as training employees for this situation by training them on organizing the day and meeting a limited number of customers this day, for example, as it is impossible to meet the same number of people who used to send emails. It is the fault of the CEO from the beginning as he should have trained employees on how to prepare themselves for this day and how to react with the public as he should have expected this reaction before, another important thing is that the impression of one employee is not enough so the CEO has to make an open discussion with other employees and recognize their opinions in order to make the right corrections for that situation. (Riley, 2012)

Leadership is very connected with change perspectives as leadership is the main drive for changes as managing a change is the responsibility of managers who should ensure business stability and the best results consequence from change implementations. Leaders are responsible to make effective acts that lead to the right changes. A manager   or a leader should have a model for change to follow when implementing a change so, for example a three steps or a four steps model should be followed by the leader to ensure correct results. A leader can choose a four steps model that begins with identifying the current situation well, its constraints and all possible alternatives and then try to learn reasons behind employees dissatisfaction with the current status, after that the leader has to choose the most suitable alternative and discuss it with employees and train them on performing it and how to face the challenges that may appear as a result of implementation. Implementation plan is important after choosing the right alternative as it can set stages of implementation and how to face the challenges.(Myers, 2012).  Navigating change is very challenging for managers and leaders as the shift can cause perplexity in the work routine and employees can find difficulty in following the new changes as the change process may affect the employees' emotional response.  The CEO could not predict this because the nature of people's reactions is not usually predictable, yet some expectations and discussions could have solved the current problem or even suggested some solutions for it.  Leaders should manage change through finding out the suitable perspective to deal with change and is relevant issues, the leader should consider change from two perspectives, from that of employees and that of the organization as change affect them both. The barriers to implementing the change should be declared and discussed and the discussion should include all employees who are going to implement the change in order to know what can help face the barriers and get the best results for both individuals and the organization as change should be done for making both of them more satisfied. (Kadir, 2014).

The current situation of the US Cellular Corporation can be solved if the CEO understood his role in change management as his role should be more effective as a leader than what is found in that case. The CEO should be more close from his employees, understanding their needs, desires, complaints, wishes and requirements.  A CEO should realize if the changes he is going to do are suitable for the work environment or not and I they would meet employee satisfaction or not. A good suggestion for the current situation is that the CEO should hold a meeting with all employees in order to discuss the change with them and set the challenges and barriers they confront while implementing the change and recognize the real reasons behind the dissatisfaction of some employees who think the esrealize that employees' training will be effective as perhaps they lost the skills needed for that task of meeting and phoning customers and co workers facto face so some training will be useful. Another important action to be done is organizing the work hours and dividing employees on new teams for that day in a way that really results in relieving the workload and leading to their job satisfaction in order to work less hours than they used to do before and meeting a reduced number of customers and co workers as this number should be limited for urgent cases only. Another solution is to assign two or three employees only to check emails at that day because some urgent emails are sent because the people sent them could find difficulties in reaching employees face to face. (Harrington, 2006)

 The following table sets a communication plan for continuous change management on employee and managerial performance at US Cellular Corporation.

KAC (Key Areas of Concern)	Objectives	Activities	Responsible Person	Time Frame
A meeting	-To know employees satisfaction level with the change. -To learn about employees complaints	Dividing the employees into groups and each group has a pioneer to talk representing the group.	-The CEO. -The leader of each group.	-The meeting time is four hours divided on two sessions with a 15 minutes break between the two sessions.
Implementation Plan	-To set stages of performing the change. -To make change easier.	-The employees provide a report for the manager about the way they prefer to implement change with. -The manger prepares the plan with the help of some employees.	-The CEO. -Employees.	One Week for receiving reports and preparing the plan.
Training Employees	-To make employees more able to master skills of meeting customers face to face.	-The CEO divides employees on groups to receive training inside the organization.	-The CEO.	Two Weks.
Evaluation	-To assess results. -To make correction.	The CEO makes a meeting with employees after implementing the training course to assess the situation.	-The CEO.	Two hours meeting.

Table 1 A communication Plan

The table1 shows how the CEO can prepare a communication plan in order to make better relationships with his employees so as to recognize their reactions and feelings towards the change and if they are able to do it or not. The CEO can hold meetings for recognizing and discussing employees' opinions and suggestions regarding the situation. An implementation plan should be made in order to divide time and employees and set stages for change implementation. Training should be provided for employees and then evaluation should be made to measure success and employees' satisfaction about the new trend in change implementation. (Paul, 2008)

Conclusion

Change in business organizations is very important as it can lead to more comfort within the work environment and raise employee retention so it should meet the goals it is made for or it will work against work success. Change management needs high effectiveness leadership at the CEO of any organization should master communication with his employees and learn if the change is suitable and helping for them or not. This can help the CEO make the right corrections or follow the proper procedures to deal with the change and make the proper implementing plan and communication plan to reach the organizational goals behind the change. Any CEO should learn that change needs to be done according to main stages and these stages are important for ensuring the success of the change. Another important thing is to identify the type of the change before implementing it. Leadership should be basd on understanding the change perspectives and how change is processed by the employees who may need training to do the desired change.  This situation is suitable for US Cellular Corporation situation.   

Master card Case Strategic Management

Introduction

Strategic management is a sort of management systems that depends on top managers of an organization and the methods and strategies they follow to implement the business goals and what initiatives they take in order to regard resources and assess different environments related to the organization in order to produce better business results. It provides the company with a direction that includes its objectives specified, resources allocated and plans which are set for them. There are different models for helping managers follow strategic management in decision making according to the company's competitive environment. There are also theories that explained strategic management context and how it can be implemented. The case is providing a description of how Mastercard's strategy in management changed when the company turned to be a public corporation in May 2008. Training plans changed and strategic planning replaced old planning methods by Rebecca Ray the new senior vice president of the company who followed three learning maps in the new training plan it set for the company. These three learning maps included one that was called "universal opportunity" that describes the competitive landscape of the company and its opportunities and challenges related to the industry, the second was called "How we make money" that related to the financial models of the company, the third was called "new climate, new culture, new company" about how to implement the company's strategy as a public company.  The current assignment is aiming at discussing the strategic management operation through the case of Mastercard and evaluate its key process, it also analyzing the theories of corporate strategies used by Mastercard and it will show the strategic plan needed to hold the event.

Analysis and content

Key process of strategic management   

The strategic management process is a complex business approach which refers to how managers can think strategically and then implement the thoughts into a process. All the employees should realize the strategic management process and recognize its stages that are goal setting, analysis, forming the strategy, implementing the strategy and monitoring it. Goal setting is tended to declare a certain vision for the business through defining objectives for the business which are short term and long term ones, it also provides an idea about the way objectives are accomplished and this stage also distributes roles and tasks on employees. The second stage is analysis which is a very important stage as this stage includes getting the information that will decide the next work as much information is collected in this stage in order to form the business vision and it focuses on the business requirements and identifying the main initiatives which can be used in order to let the business grow and develop. Analysis discusses the factors which could affect the business goals and the business's strengths and weaknesses. The third stage is formulating the business strategy in which information is used to decide the business's resources that can lead to goals achievement. The fourth stage is strategy implementation which is related to the business success as it is the stage where actions are taken to perform the process of strategic management and it needs a suitable business structure and in it responsibilities and tasks of each employee are well known and recognized and security is done on the business resources and funds and then execute the plan. The last stage is the evaluation stage where the implemented strategy is to be evaluated and then control actions are done such as reviewing the business issues, performance measurement and then to make any amendments required. (Sadler, 2003)

Key process of strategic management applied by MasterCard

MasterCard has turned to be a public company and this forced the company's management to change its management methodologies into strategic management that depended on a large single learning event that included a strategic management key process that involved many stages such as setting a goal for the new changes the company is going to face and preparing a plan for making employees ready to deal with the changes and to make them ready for the new tasks of the business and then there was the Road Map to the Future which included seminars in 110 workshops executed in 36 cities in a time period of three weeks. Employees were to be trained by the best human resources trainees and managers from many areas all over the world; they were assigned to teach the employees how to deal with the new changes the company is encountering and the meaning of a publicly traded company in addition to explaining to them the related issues to the matter. Then the company divided the strategic training plan into three phases as each has its goals and implementations. This strategy included many parts of the major stages and elements of strategic management process such as having a clear goal which is preparing employees for the new framework of the business, planning for this and training employees but this needed an evaluation stage to measure results and decide what was right and what was wrong and make the needed corrections. These corrections should be made according to the errors occurred and the difficulties that the business faced during the change achievement operations and its phases. (Case Study)

Theories and Perspectives of corporate strategies

Corporate strategy has been explained by the complexity theory which sees that corporate strategy is a comprehensive work that all the business employees and managers should share. It focuses on the central strategic choices companies should take and how the corporate strategy should create competitive advantage and raise the level of corporate performance. This theory suggests that the role of corporate executives in achieving the corporate strategy central choices and adopting its complete perspective.( Eisenhardt and Piezunkal, 2015) Another theory is the multi business corporate strategy theory which suggests that the company should have many corporate strategy and not only one in order to reach corporate advantage and increase profits. There are also many perspectives that explained how corporate strategy could be used by goals, resources, structure and managers to reach competitive advantage such as the industrial organization theory which refers to how industries can enhance the economies and raise profits. (Baso,1995). Another is the transaction cost theory, the agency theory, the resource-based view, growth strategy perspectives, market segmentation strategy, real option theory, the dominant logic and the institutional theory. They all set a framework for explaining a relationship between the goals, resources, structure and managers to improve the company's performance. These theories are prepared to raise the company's value in order to make more profits and have better human resources who are able to bring in more success for the business through understanding the work more. Planning and strategy are explained through these theories in order to provide the company with a new overall view of leadership which can bring about new results and preferred unexpected results. (Fujii, 2014)             

Payment card industry embodied in MasterCard Worldwide can grow through following certain corporate strategy that is appropriate for the industry and helps it become more advanced. MasterCard is following perspectives of corporate strategy which are suitable and successful. Business growth requires a suitable corporate strategy so MasterCard uses a business growth strategy that begins with the market insights which can be brought by specialists and consultants of strategic marketing in order to achieve changes within the business structure and develop methods for ensuring a flow of the insights of the market for business. For MasterCard, growth is a must and not an option so sustainability should be assured to make the growth profitable. The theory of market segmentation is very important for MasterCard as segmenting the market is used by the company to target its opportunities in different areas where there are places that have specific purchasing and business modes that can suit MasterCard and its policy and clarity.  A segmentation strategy can help the company identify its relevant segments relating to place and customers types around the world. New market entries are discovered everyday by MasterCard as this leads the company to new areas of services in the current and potential markets. (Hunt, 2014)An integrated strategy is followed by MasterCard to develop the company's growth as strategic managers are responsible for performing all suitable perspectives and theories of strategic management in order to reach competitive advantage and raise the company's growth rate. By following this, the company is using all its managers to reach a growth point for the business in order to reach all levels of strategic management such as the corporate level, the business level and the functional level through each level managers. (Hill et al, 2014)

Strategic planning is very important for the business as it tells what the organization scope will be according to long term plans and the plan can organize both scope and direction of the organization with the company's resources, customers, different environments, the changing market and suit them according to the expectations of stakeholders. A desired future is explored and set within a strategic plan as it draws a vision for the business and then translate it into a number of certain goals and procedures to implement them. Each stage of the plan should be prepared and discussed by the business's managers and employees who should realize how to implement the strategic plan. There are different types of plans such as the short term plan which has short term goals and vision for a short period of time such as five years as a maximum; these plans are suitable for businesses that are implementing new schemes and results are not very clear. There are also medium term plans that are longer than the short ones but not very long at the same time and they can be applied on a longer period of time, there are also long term plans that are prepared for long times and have deeper goals and visions which are always comprehensive. Some businesses can mix between two of these plan types or even the three types together in order to reach the desired business goals easily and clearly. Evaluation is a basic step that should be implemented for each plan type. (Burkardt, 2007).

As there are different strategic plans to be used by business owners and managers to achieve the organizational goals such as the short term, medium term and long term plans; MasterCard  would need long term planning which should have main characteristics such as having a deep future vision that looks at the future insights and suggests better future solutions for the current problems and obstacles. A long term plan involves continuous improvements that add value to the business. Yet this long term plan should be divided into phases and each phase has a specific period time in order to enhance the evaluation process and the correction procedures. The company's environment and structure should be considered within such plans. The event of turning MasterCard to a publicly company requires a plan that has the three phases, the short, the medium and the long term plans. Time frames should also be regarded while setting the plan and the plan should have clear goals for all employees in order to be easily implemented. Expected outcomes should be discussed and should have a criterion to be achieved according to. Long term plans are more suitable for a big company such as MasterCard because permanent solutions are better to increase the company's competitive situation in all different environments. Long term plans examine all various expenditures such as procedures, facilities and equipments that the company uses to achieve its main goals. MasterCard can reach its competitiveness if the long term plans were well divided because this can help increasing the effectiveness of evaluating the company's situations. (Alder and Kay, 2005)       

Conclusion

To conclude, it is important to state that strategic management is very important for any business corporation as this management can help the business increase its share in the market, achieve its organizational goals and implement any needed changes for a future phase that includes new innovative ideas. Successful managers can work all together in order to achieve the goals of the business. Strategic management key process depends on the business goals, vision, resources, structures and managers or executives who can be specialists, trainees or managers themselves. Strategic management process should be implemented according to the business needs, market environments, human resource capabilities and relevant issues that may affect the future of the business. Business strategic Management requires strategic planning which can combine all business relevant matters into a plan and a vision that can be implemented by all the business managers and employees in order to bring in more clients and profits for the business. The current paper is providing an analysis for strategic management and how MasterCard company implemented it in the event of turning the company into a publicly corporation as employees were trained in order to understand the new framework the company is going to work according to. The company depended on managers and executives for the strategic plans the company can following order to reach the goals of the business and implement new techniques properly and bring the best results for the company.