Business Report about Prudential Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Report about Prudential - Essay Example In the words of Henry Fayol (1987), management is all about forecasting, planning, organizing, forming coordination and keeping control. This implies that management is made of four interlocking functions namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Porter, 2008) Management is a continuous process because its four functions are interdependent on each other therefore, management never stops. A deep insight into the concept of management shows that the task of a manager is to ensure that all resources of the organization are working in harmony with human resources. A manager is responsible for creating such an environment where workers are motivated and they do not lose their focus. Management as a whole is dynamic in nature. It involves the use of various disciplines such as economics, ethics, psychology and sociology etc in order to guarantee that workers achieve their targets on time by utilizing resources optimally (Terence Lucey, 2005). Competing Values Framework (CVF): T here are a number of approaches to management and fortunately they have all come together in Quinn’s (1981) competing values framework (CVF). The idea behind the introduction of this approach was to simplify the language which is useful in defining organizational effectiveness in terms of its designing, analysis and development. This framework can have multiple purposes: it serves as a learning system in the organization, an idea generator, a map and a mechanism that makes sense of organizing. It helps in the identification of factors and guidelines which assist the managers in managing conflicts, congruencies and relationships at different levels of the organizations (Wesley, 2008). The competing values framework (CVF) helps the organizational members and managers create value for the organization as well as improve its performance at both internal and external levels. Cameron and Quinn (2006) proposed that organizational effectiveness can be demonstrated by four of competin g values namely internal, external, flexibility and control. The model illustrates that the vertical axis represents structural preferences of organizations from flexibility to control and the horizontal axis shows the perspectives from internal (people oriented) to external (organization oriented) emphasis (see Appendix). The framework is further divided into four quadrants namely human relations model, internal process model, open system model and rational goal model (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). 2.0 Application 2.1 Name and Challenge Establishes in 1875 and headquartered in the city of Newark, NJ, Prudential Financial Inc. is one of the leading companies which offers to its customers various products and services of financial nature. These offerings include investment management, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance policies and special services for the retired citizens. For over more than hundred years, the company is enjoying successful operations in Latin America, United State s, Europe and Asia. So far, the number of permanent employees associated with Prudential Inc. has reached up to fifty thousand one hundred and four. There are three main divisions of the company namely: U.S Retirement Solutions and Investment Management, International Insurance and Investment and U.S Individual Life and Group Insurance. Of the many challenges Prudential is facing, the challenge of climate change holds significant importance. Global warming has given rise to the issue of