The client requires a computer system that can be run in a Pastor’s office and assist the Pastor in the administrative matters of the Church. The system should be easy to operate, easy to install and provide all of the identified administrative functions.

Scheme

The diagram to the right indicates the basic schema for the system. It facilitates the requirements of the Administrative Office (Pastors Office) and remote access to the system via Wireless / Internet access for PC, Laptop and Tablet connection

Hardware

• Central Database Server | Contains, operating system, data files, CPU, Firewall
• Hi Speed Laser Printer | Serves all central printing and Fax requirements
• Scanner | Scans any documents, serves fax and photo copy functions
• Workstation | Performs all Pastoral office administrative functions
• Laptop (s) | Provide system access whilst working remotely, facilitates other devices
  like Tablets and remote PC’s / Workstations

Software

• Windows 7 | Microsoft Operating System for small network
• Norton Total Security | Firewall embracing anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention
  software (firewall)
• Microsoft Office Professional | Word-processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, etc.
  May also embrace electronic bible system in database for scripture work. i.e e-sword
• Quickbooks – Accounting and payroll system. Alternative is PowerChurch software that
  has been designed specifically for Church Administrative systems.

System Performance

High Speed broadband connection supports the Central Server; Wireless connectivity has been optimized for remote access. The system contains adequate memory and high speed central processing unit (CPU). The system has a high degree of robustness with a 5 year maintenance agreement attached to it. Most systems require some form of technical upgrade every 3-5 years. (Krauss, 2004)

Objectives

The system meets the objectives of providing a full capability in house administrative function whilst allowing the Pastor and other authorised user’s access to the system from a remote basis via the internet and wireless network.

Cost Comparison

Most PC Network configurations can be configured +/- 20% on quoted prices subject to a variation of configuration requirements. There is also the option of rental and for cost comparison this is illustrated here.

The chart is based upon number church households in the pastors area. The higher the number (1000+) the cheaper the software rental use becomes; with 501-100 taking peak costs [based on ICOM Church systems network solution] (ICON CMO Systems, 2011).

Research Question

This paper hypothesizes that increases in job passion in workers that derive from internal, voluntary sources (i.e., desire to achieve the goal of the work process) of the workers correlate to increases in both cognitive absorption and cognitive attention of those workers. Furthermore, the authors hypothesize that increases in job passion in workers that derive from external sources (i.e., desire for status or financial rewards) correlates to a decrease in both cognitive absorption and cognitive attention. Finally, the authors hypothesize that cognitive absorption and cognitive attention in a worker correlate to improved work performance and that cognitive absorption and attention mediate job passion, whether internal or externally sourced. (Ho, Sze-Sze and Lee, 2011). In this regard, the authors define absorption as how intensely the workers focus on their work, i.e., how hard it is to distract them, and attention as how many cognitive resources are applied to the work, i.e., how hard they have to think about the work.

Theoretical Framework

The authors define job passion as synthesizing both emotional liking for the job and the person’s perceptions about how important that job is. Thus, it differs significantly from external motivations, job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization. The passion can also be either harmonious, in which the individual has a voluntary affection for the job, or obsessive, in which the passion derives from either pressure or job outcomes. For example, a doctor’s harmonious passion is the desire to heal others; another doctor’s obsessive passion may be a need for the social status and income of a doctor. By splitting the source of passion in this way, it becomes possible to distinguish positive and negative outcomes as both deriving from different types of job passion.

Methods of research

The participants were 717 full time employees of a large insurance company from all levels within the company hierarchy. Just under one-third were male, and the participants worked an average of 7.8 years at the company and averaged 36.4 years of age. The methodology was via questionnaire; only 77% of the questionnaires were completely filled out and thus usable for the study, and of those, a total of 509 had job performance assessments available for comparison. The instrument used to measure job passion was the Passion Scale (Vallernad et al., 2003). Cognitive absorption and attention were measured with scales developed by Rothbard (2001). Work performance was based on employee performance metrics from the company. Other attributes measured as controls included job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job identification, as well as general participant demographics.

Study results and contributions

The authors presented a structural model that provides a generally good fit to the measured data. Several of their hypotheses were demonstrated by the data. Exceptions that were not proven included that obsessive passion would be negatively correlated to cognitive attention (no significant correlation), and that cognitive attention would be positively correlated to work performance (no significant correlation). In addition, there was only small support for the hypothesis that attention and absorption mediate harmonious passion, but no significant mediation effect was found for attention and absorption as mediators for obsessive passions.

Critical examination

Importance or interest of research questions The authors have extended the concept of job passion by separating harmonious and obsessive passion and providing a measuring process for both types. In addition, the study demonstrates that the two types of passion have different impacts on job performance. They also demonstrated that employees who experience a harmonious passion for their work have a more intense work experience in terms of cognitive attention and absorption. Surprisingly, cognitive attention did not seem to relate to work performance; the reasons for this are unclear.

Other possible methods of investigation In this study, only a quantitative methodology was used. It would be possible to do a mixed methods study in which both quantitative and qualitative measures were taken, and these could then be triangulated. The qualitative interviews could help offset some issues with study bias. This would allow the study to gain the best of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

The study did answer several of the research questions, though it also raised more questions. Other studies have considered factors not measured in this study, including work experience and creative performance (Zhang and Bartol, 2010), value congruence, perceived support from organization and self-evaluation ((Rich, Lepine and Crawford, 2010); these may have equal relevance to the problem. Another issue not considered in this study is that of psychological safety, which can impact engagement (May, Gilson and Harter, 2004). In addition, Halbesleben & Wheeler (2008) have pointed out that the degree of embeddedness (those factors keeping a worker at a job) also impacts engagement.

Limitations of study Several limitations exist in this study. The sampling process was not ideal. As noted in Bryman & Bell (2011, pp. 204-207), sampling errors and sampling-related errors are key sources of errors in survey research. Approximately 71% of the participants actually were included in the survey due to either incomplete survey forms or missing work performance data; this is a form of convenience sampling. The differences between the sample and the overall population are defined in certain demographics outlined in the paper, but that may not identify crucial differences in populations. A more stratified sampling approach may be more appropriate.

A second source of error is that the participants were taken from only a single firm in a single industry (insurance); thus, it is unclear whether the results generalize to other companies or industries. This impacts the validity and reliability of the study. Other factors that also impact these elements are that the company’s mission and vision were not considered nor were socioeconomic issues, anxiety due to the methodology of the survey, and so on. Furthermore, only one-third (32.4%) of the participants were male, so a gender skewing may be present in these results; it is unclear if female workplace motivations are the same as for males.

In Table 1, the variance of each budget item is computed by subtracting the budgeted amount for that item from the actual costs for the item. If the result is a negative number, it means that the actual costs are lower than the budgeted amount, and there is a negative variance. If the result is positive, the actual costs are higher than the budgeted amount. In the table, positive variances are shown in red to indicate that these budget items need some attention from management because that category of budget item went over budget. In the table, the right-most column provides a possible explanation for why that item had a variance (either positive or negative).

Table 1. Analysis of Variances for Several Expense Categories
(Overbudget variances are in red; underbudget variances in black.)

Improving Budgeting with Benchmarking

One technique that assists with managing a budget in any organization, but specifically in healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics is benchmarking. This is a technique in which the organization’s results are compared to any (or all) of its own performance in prior years, or to the performance of a similar organization, or to a performance standard that a professional organization sets as an attainable goal (Goldberg & Fleming, 2010, 309).

For example, benchmarking an organization against itself may be helpful if previous years’ expenses and revenues are comparable with expected following year. In such a case, benchmarking would consist of making a best-estimate of expected revenue, then determining how expenses can be driven down. Management receives estimated budgets based on this historical record to assist with holding costs at the lowest possible levels. These historical budgets provide a guide to the managers to help them stay within budget. It may also help if managers receive bonuses or other incentives for staying in budget.

A second type of benchmarking is comparing the organization’s performance to that of other similar organizations. In this type of scenario, it is worthwhile to pay visits to such organizations to interview their management and consider how that organization’s financial experience compares. For a typical hospital approximately 60% of the budget is spent on labor, and most of that is spent on nursing labor (Goldberg & Fleming, 2010, 309). This means that benchmarking other hospitals that service nearby communities can confirm that nursing (and other staff) salaries and benefits are on a par with the community norms. In addition, it can be helpful to assess the span of control of those with management titles to determine if salaries, titles, and reporting staff are all in line with community and professional standards. When doing such comparisons, however, it’s important to know the level of performance that is desired to be achieved. Is the goal to just be in the middle of the pack, somewhere around the median performance and cost control? Or is the objective to be a top-rank organization. Such decisions determine what kind of benchmarking is needed and which organizations would be most important in such external comparisons (Berger, 2004, 78).

The third type of benchmarking is to compare the organization’s performance with performance norms determined by outside organizations. This is extremely helpful in two major cases. First, one is with the accreditation of the hospital with state and national organizations. While non-financial standards are a large part of such accreditation, those standards do include financial measures to confirm financial stability and cost control. Another, highly prestigious benchmarking process is that of the Malcolm Baldrige Award. In this latter case, healthcare organizations consistently report that merely applying for the award, with all the measures, self-reflection, and organizational benchmarking that application entails, frequently results in significant improvement, in large part because it includes benchmarking both against pefromance norms and against the highest-performing healthcare organizations and using those external norms as performance standards (Sister Mary Jean Ryan, 2002 Award recipient, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2010). The disadvantage of the Baldrige Award form of benchmarking is that it requires a tremendous time and manpower commitment at all levels up to and including the CEO of the hospital.

Of these three forms of benchmarking, one of the most important mechanisms to create improvement is to benchmark against other organizations. This is preferred over simply comparing against the organization’s own past performance because it’s difficult to see areas of improvement within your own organization simply because it’s so familiar. By looking with open minds at how highly efficient, cost-effective organizations operate, new ideas and new potential savings can be more easily seen. Ideally, this type of external benchmarking would be done once a year to ensure that financially the company stays on track (Clark, 2005, 80).

To optimize budget performance, the focus should be on controlling labor costs. This implies not only ensuring that salaries are controlled, but also managing overtime by ensuring enough staff to operate are available at all times. This also implies that managers must keep the use of temporary or contract professional staff to a minimum. One way to do that is to use benchmarking of similar organizations to ensure that salaries and benefits are in line with community standards. This will permit the development of more realistic budgetary targets that can be more readily maintained. By analyzing the use of contract staff, staffing levels can be designed to better anticipate the needs of the organization.

Benchmarking at all three levels is useful. Comparison to the organization’s past performance allows the development of budgets that reflect actual demand and history over the years Benchmarking to external standards ensures that the hospital meets all required standards, and, in the event of trying for a major national award, such as the Baldrige Award, the simple process of performing the benchmarking can significantly improve the organization’s efficiency and cost controls. But possibly one of the most useful benchmarking techniques is to do direct external benchmarks with other similar organizations to determine best management and cost control practices. By understanding how other organizations operate, it is possible both to see improved practices, and also pitfalls to be avoided. Because it is an external organization, however, it’s also easier to see both the flaws and improvements they execute in their organization. A little distance provides objectivity to see things clearly.

1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
• Background to nursing leadership styles
• Challenges of Nursing in health care system
• Thesis Statement
4. Leadership styles for nurses
• Different leadership styles
• My approach to leadership – Integrative Leadership
• Value of leadership in the Nursing profession
• Changes in leadership due to evolving roles
• Challenges of Nursing in Healthcare
• Effect of formal and informal power
5. Conclusion
• Re-examination of Thesis Statement
• Summary of key points
6. Bibliography

In contrast, the quality management program of Six Sigma can be defined as an overall company and management philosophy. The basic function of Six Sigma is that it “shifts the paradigm quality as the cause of good business performance and not the effect.” (Mukherjee, 2006, p. 337) Accordingly, Six Sigma does not attempt to reach quality management standards that are defined by an exterior source, but rather starts from a definition of quality that is consistent with the company’s vision, and thus produces goods within this framework.

Both quality management programs obviously stress the quality of products, in order to help ensure the success of producers and the satisfaction of consumers. However, the means by which Sigma Six and ISO 9000 accomplish this aim are radically different. ISO 9000 is an exterior standard, defined by an international network. Accordingly, companies attempt to achieve this standard. In contrast, Sigma Six is what may be termed a wholly immanent approach to quality, in which quality is to be present throughout the business, beginning at its most foundational levels. The business does not attempt to satisfy pre-existing and exteriorly defined quality standards, but rather its entire structure is imbued with a self-defined notion of quality that determines its strategies. The crucial difference between ISO 9000 and Six Sigma thus lies in the former’s somewhat mechanical approach to quality management and the latter’s greater philosophical approach to quality management.

2. Two examples of companies within the fashion and apparel industry that employ Six Sigma concepts for quality management are Textured Jersey (hereinafter: TJ) and Bob’s stores respectively. In the case of TJ, the company manufactures fabric for women’s wear, producing approximately 6 million meters per year (Smith & Bates, 2003, p. 496) TJ’s decision to implement Six Sigma can be traced back to the successes of the strategy among major companies; moreover, the notion that such major companies set their own standards for excellence and quality informed TJ’s choice. (Smith & Bates, 2003, p. 496) Regarding their implementation of Six Sigma, TJ set the following goals: that Six Sigma is recognized as a benchmark to be attained; that it becomes completely institutionalized; that “bottom-line” improvements emerge; that existing problems are eliminated; that an encouraging work environment develops; and that novelty is a crucial part of the company’s world view. (Smith & Bates, 2003, p. 496) Accordingly, the approach of TJ was one of a radical change in the company’s philosophy, which generated such positive effects as general cost reduction and productivity increases. (Smith & Bates, 2003, p. 496) Furthermore, recent aims of TJ as defined by the Six Sigma strategy have included an aggressive expansion of their production base. (Textured Jersey, 2011) The primary decision of TJ’s quality management program can therefore be understood as an attempt to remain proactive as opposed to reactive: an internal conception of quality that is generated throughout the company, and furthermore, the realization of this notion of quality in all phases of the company’s operations, for example, from the establishment of a positive work environment to an emphasis on “bottom line” economics, demonstrates the company-wide changes that Six Sigma has encouraged. What is arguably crucial about TJ’s approach is its embracement of novelty: quality is not considered as something static, but rather as ever-evolving, insofar as new standards of what constitutes a quality product continually emerge, either determined by consumer demand or advancements made by the competitors. (Smith & Bates, 2003, p. 496)

Bob’s Stores is an American fashion retailer that sells discounted brand clothing. The company went bankrupt in 2003, but under new ownership implemented a Six Sigma strategy in 2006. (SBTI, 2008, p. 1) This implementation was preceded by a careful and multi-step investigation of relevant Six Sigma strategies to fashion retailers, and included contacting Six Sigma consulting firms and “holding an executive offsite to confirm strategic objectives.” (SBTI, 2008, p. 1) The main goal of the company was to “improve performance”, thereby prohibiting expansion until existing stores were deemed to be efficient and profitable. (SBTI, 2008, p. 1) This aim coincided to the delineation of specific projects as follows: the development of a vision statement; a definition of business critical factors for the next period; the generation of new ideas; ranking relevant projects; an overall strategy review; and final project decisions. (SBTI, 2008, p. 2) The specific results of these quality programs included the improvement of the seasonal floor set and making the purchase order process more efficient. (SBTI, 2008, p. 2) In the case of Bob’s Stores, Six Sigma as quality management program was therefore employed to improve the quality of existing stores. Unlike TJ’s appropriation of Six Sigma, with its emphasis on aggressive novelty, Bob’s Stores decided to improve their already existing stores and thus form a standard of quality from existing company resources. The two companies therefore demonstrate the versatility of Six Sigma strategies, insofar as Six Sigma is consistent with both highly aggressive and more conservative approaches.

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Pharmaceutical companies are one of the more egregious examples of manipulation as they campaign to have every adult in the U.S. on medications that “manage symptoms” rather than cure. The strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies extend across the spectrum of media, from radio and television, to print, to web. What is worse is that Fugh-Berman et al. (May 06, 2002) claims that many organizations that appear to be designed to promote the best interests of women’s health are either owned by pharmaceutical companies or supported by them in whole or in part. Furthermore, discovering the stakeholders in organizations can be challenging for the average consumer.

While there is overt awareness of how images of women are manipulated by the beauty industry, there is far less public awareness of how pharmaceutical companies use women. Fugh-Berman et al. (May 06, 2002) point out that in the case of osteoporosis, breast cancer, pre-menstrual syndrome, and other female-centered diseases, pharmaceuticals follow an effective, if perhaps less than ethical, path in which women are first taught to fear the disease or condition (such as showing old women with advanced osteoporosis), then taught them to demand an expensive test (using equipment marketed by the relevant pharmaceutical company), then used that demand to persuade Medicare/Medicaid and other health insurers to pay for the test, thus increasing the demand for the company’s test equipment (bone scanning machines) and medications (Fosamax).

Unfortunately, this is far from a single example. Fugh-Berman , et al. (May 06, 2002) claim that virtually all information available to both medical professionals and consumers derives at least in part from pharmaceutical companies with a vested financial interest in products, tests, or equipment specified. And since women tend to be the health monitors of the family, that consumer information also tends to make use of women in the advertising. By manipulating women to fear specific situations and conditions, and then by appealing to their induced fears and concern for their health and well-being, pharmaceutical companies manipulate demand for their products. Because modern-day journalists often do little true investigative journalism and tend to quote heavily from company-provided information and images, even news stories cannot be assumed to have impartial or objective reports about medications. Images of women designed to coerce women into doing exactly as the companies wish thus play a key role in manipulating women for the commercial benefit of companies.
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This does not quite accurately reflect the actual structure of the organization because it does not include the shift supervisors for each of the nursing units. However, even taking the chart to that additional level of detail this is a remarkably flat structure. From an individual nurse, the managerial levels go to: shift supervisor, Associate Director (say, of the Medical/surgical unit), the CNO, who reports to the Chief Medical Officer, who in turn reports directly to the General Director and CEO of the hospital. Thus, there are only five layers of management between a typical nurse on the floor and the CEO of the entire hospital.

This type of very flat organization is good to work with in many ways because it seems much more personal than an organization that has many layers of management. It makes it easy for anyone to talk to someone “in authority” when a problem arises. No doubt it also makes the managerial positions more challenging, but it does seem like a good type of organization for the individual nurses. It is as if everyone potentially has the ear of even “high level” managers throughout the organization.

The character of Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is broadly dimensional, despite typical perceptions of her. In relatively recent years, she has been pointed to as exemplary of a delayed feminist sensibility, one rudely shocked into an awareness of her own dependence and demeaning circumstances. Nora’s life is usually perceived to be that of a mindless, feminine, subservient wife and mother, one happy to dance for her husband in order to please him and gain a treat, until a revelation in the third act forces her to reconsider her existence.

This assessment of Nora, however, completely overlooks the spirit and intelligence of the character as depicted from the play’s onset. The Nora Ibsen presents to the audience is, from the beginning, a woman who has adapted to circumstances in order to exercise an authority of her own. She clearly holds to the values of her life with her husband, Torvald, and of the society around them, but she covertly breaks the rules in order to achieve a far more important goal, that of saving her husband’s life. It is only when Torvald reveals how truly small his own nature is that Nora understands the futility of her sacrifice and her existence, and this is by no means a refutation of the values to which she so willingly adhered. In a very real sense, Nora undergoes no change or revelation as a character, because there is a power and capability within her all the while; only Torvald’s revealing of himself as too petty to comprehend the largeness of her actions triggers her abandoning of her life.

Nora as Wife in the Society

There can be no understanding of the depth of Nora without a full sense of what, from the start of the play, she has been concealing for years. Only by negotiating an expensive loan is she able to obtain for her husband the time away needed for him to recover his health, and this can be achieved only through secrecy because Nora must conform to both her husband’s expectations of her role in the home, and of society’s. More importantly, these same expectations are completely accepted by Nora herself. She understands how unacceptable her negotiations are to her world and, if she does not fully respect these values, she is more than willing to comply with them. This is the strength in Nora that is not lying in wait till the climax of the play, because it is evidence of the scope of her mind and of her innate sense of priorities. A “doll” of a wife would never have the courage to lie to her husband for his own sake, or brave the financial dealings and obligations necessary to obtaining the needed result. Nora does not shun the values of her world, but she will not permit them to interfere when a greater purpose is at hand.

It is this hidden current of resolve that defines Nora. The foolishness she engages in to please her husband is not demeaning to her because she both understands that it is no more than silliness, and because her love for him is expansive enough to allow for it. The common notion of Nora as mindless plaything is actually never evident in the play because Ibsen informs his audience early on of what his heroine’s true character is. When Nora explains her recent life to her old friend, Christine, she nearly reveals something that is shameful to her as she relates the work she herself has had to do: “Odds and ends, needlework, crochet-work, embroidery, and that kind of thing. And other things as well” (Ibsen 1269). The shame, as is shortly revealed, is the need to conceal from Torvald the hard work she has to undertake to pay for the trip which saves his life. Unknown to her husband, she has taken on “unfeminine” work of copying to pay the debt. This is unimportant to her, ultimately, even as she complies in the values requiring that the work be concealed. There are legal components to the bargain she has made she does not understand, but even this failure is due to her deep-seated belief in the irrefutable good of her actions. Her values echo those of her society, but they transcend them as well, and Nora takes on her responsibilities in a nearly heroic manner.

When, later in the play, Torvald is shocked and disgusted to learn of Nora’s subterfuge, the real revelation occurs, and it is by no means a feminist rejection of the society in which Nora has lived. Torvald’s reaction does prompt Nora to rethink, or consider for the first time, how her husband has viewed her, as well as her own upbringing: “You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life” (Ibsen 1325). All of this, however, is a consequence of the greater impact. The real shock that Nora must confront is that she has been betrayed in love and in the visceral understanding she believed existed between herself and Torvald. For his sake, she had been happy to accommodate the values of their world because the foundation she believed to have united them rendered such considerations unimportant; Torvald’s complete withdrawing of his love and regard show her how there is no substance to the man, and therefore to his love. For Nora, there had been twin sets of values, that of those that truly matter and those dictated by their external world. For Torvald, there was only the latter, and this is so shocking to her that she must recoil even from the children they have: “I won’t see the little ones. I know they are in better hands than mine” (Ibsen 1331). Torvald essentially forces Nora to leave, as he leaves her with nothing to rely on. In removing the foundation upon which she had counted, Torvald renders the surrounding, external values meaningless to her.

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The Zara Corporation’s success is based on its supply chain. Fast fashion can exist only with a tightly controlled manufacturing and distribution arm. Zara achieves this through keeping its design, manufacturing, and distribution wings in house, and relying on them to create clothing that is tailored to appeal to men, women, and children around the world. This fashion is based on modern styles, but is meant to be distributed through Zara’s supply chain. This structure eliminates middle men and allows the Zara Corporation to keep a tight hold on its supply chain in order to eliminate waste and streamline the process that leads them from design to manufacturing to retail sales (Zara 2001).
Background on The Zara Corporation

The Zara Corporation is subsidiary of Inditex, which is based out of Spain and is the world’s largest fashion group. The Zara shop was actually the beginning of Inditex, with the rest of the group growing from the success of Zara. The Zara Company is a clothing provider for men, women, and children based out of Corunna, Spain. The first store was founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega, who originally working as a retail employee. Zara’s unique take on manufacturing and supply took shape in the 1980’s, and has since led to success in the industry. Since its beginnings, the Zara Corporation has grown to a world wide retail clothing business.

Zara is a company built, by their own description, on imitation (Kumar 2011). Their business model consists of high turnover of design and retail, and the design that mimics that of the latest fashions. Zara’s success can be attributed to this imitation and the speed at which products can be manufactured and shipped to retail locations, allowing the company a great deal of flexibility in its product selection (Thoney-Barletta and Hartman, 2005). This turns the traditional retail model on its head, allowing for the perfection of the supply chain and the ability of Zara retailers to maximize profitability, minimize loss, and beat their competitors to the sale of new fashions.

Zara’s future lies in globalization and expansion. While their supply chain relies on a single source of manufactured products, the model could be sped up by opening new factories farther from the main factory in Corunna, Spain. This would be further improvement upon their already impressive supply chain. In addition, the cost of shipping to all the areas of the world in which Zara retailers maintain businesses would be saved by opening more localized factories.
The Vertically Integrated Supply Chain and the Competitive Advantage

Fast fashion is the industry term that refers to the current turnover time in which designs move from the conception and fashion show stage, to the retail stores and, ultimately, in to the hands of customers. As implied by the name, fast fashion is the practice of speeding that turnover time up as much as possible in order to move the products from the design and manufacturing stage to the retail stage. The trend in fashion over the past decade has been to employ as speedy a method as possible that heavily involves the employment of efficient supply chains (Hines, 19).

The goal of fast fashion is, ultimately, to move products more effectively by ensuring that the latest fashions, often from events like Fashion Week, arrive in stores as quickly as possible. For the Zara Corporation and retailers like it, the supply chain is the most important aspect that increases the speed of fashion. Since the Zara Corporation is not in the business of predicting fashions, they must utilize effective supply chains in order to respond to consumer demand.

Zara accomplishes this goal by being in control of its own supply chain. The Zara Corporation designs its own products and manufactures them in house at a factory in Corunna, Spain. The products are manufactured and shipped to stores worldwide, with a turn over time of only a few weeks from conception to retail. The location of the factory is especially important to this effort because Corunna is known as a textile town; much of the raw materials can be purchased close to the factory, and employed in manufacturing cheaper and more quickly (Chen 119).

While some cheaper, outside sources are used in certain products, Zara produces roughly 50% of its own goods, allowing these goods to be shipped directly to stores at the lowest possible cost. These goods are often those that are imitators of those items that are on the cutting edge of fashion. Because it is impossible to predict with perfect accuracy the tastes of their customers, Zara focuses on bringing as many products to the customers as possible and allowing them to decide their preferences.

The main sourcing strategy for Zara is based on its location. Corunna is a textile town, and Zara gets its raw supplies from this local source. It is common for the Zara factory to receive a shipment of raw goods from the area surrounding the factory and implement those goods in to their current designs. This eliminates the need to purchase and ship goods from far away and is a perfect example of the Zara Corporation’s resourcefulness.

Zara’s supply chain is integral to its market strategy. The retail strategy for the company is best exhibited by utilization of its own supply chain in order to employ the concept of fast fashion as an imitator to other brands. Zara designers, manufacturing, and shipping turn fashion retail in to a trial and error business model, focused on customer needs. Because of its supply chain, the Zara Corporation is capable of listening to customers and employing new products at a lightning pace. In addition, Zara can monitor and remove poorly selling items from its shelved while incurring minimal manufacturing costs rather than the costs of purchasing those products from more expensive designers and manufacturers. Because so much of Zara’s supply chain is internal and focused on sales themselves, and the items that are produced and sent to retailers are those that sell well, the supply chain can be described as both lean and agile, which are both indications of the effectiveness of the supply chain and its overall benefit to the retail company.

A key component in Zara’s competitive advantage is the concept of imitation as it relates to the retail merchandise. Zara does not rely heavily on popular designers and traditional manufacturers like its competitors. Instead, the internal design and manufacturing functions on imitation and volume. This imitation and volume is made possible by the internal design and manufacturing, enabling the supply chain for the company to remain lean and agile while providing the highest level of cost effectiveness that is possible.

Corporate fraud is unfortunately not rare in the business world in Canada. A 2009 multinational survey by Price Waterhouse Cooper “white collar” or economic crime is growing faster in Canada than in other developed countries, with 56 percent of Canadian companies reporting fraudulent activity in 2009. Types of fraudulent schemes include prime bank instruments offering higher than normal returns but which are actually non-existent instruments, Ponzi or pyramid schemes in which initial investors are paid off by the investments of later investors, “pump and dump” scams in which a stock is pumped up using a variety of bogus promotion techniques, allowing the perpetrators to dump the stock when the public heeds the bogus rumors. In all cases, the individuals perpetrating the fraudulent scheme have no real intention of running a legitimate company, but merely use the company as a way to access the wallets of the scheme’s victims. Also, frequently only a few key executives are aware of the fraudulent intentions behind the company; thus, the other stakeholders in the company are often as much victims as those who invest in the schemes.

What all such cases have in common is that stakeholders in the various organizations or investments were harmed by the fraudulent actions of the corporate officials involved. The level of impact on stakeholders can be as little as a few thousand dollars to millions—or billions—of dollars of damages. While current literature has focused on developing models for stakeholder relations with the requisite company, generally speaking, the assumption is that the company and its executives are operating in good faith rather than with fraudulent intentions. In the case of Ponzi scheme or other deliberate fraud, however, such an assumption cannot be made. The characteristics assumed for stakeholder groups assumed by models do not match the characteristics of stakeholder groups who have been (or are being) victimized by corporate executives with malicious intentions. Most research in the field focuses on prevention and accounting policies for detection, rather than on consideration of the issues faced by stakeholders who need to mobilize to recover their lost proceeds.

At issue in these cases is how the stakeholders respond to corporate fraud when it arises. Do they engage as individuals or evolve into a cohesive group? How do such groups of stakeholders arise and what conditions influence their development? What permits stakeholders to mobilize and recruit other stakeholders to participate in actions against the fraudulent executives? These questions have not been broadly addressed in the literature, and are the subject of this paper.

Literature Review

Business exists, within a complex series of relationships between the organization, its employees, owners, clients, suppliers and community in which it operates. All of these actors connected to an organization are known collectively as stakeholders. The term stakeholder finds its genesis in the 18th century English case law, wherein a party would hold a stake in a financial transaction or hold in trust the proceeds of a wager (Johnson-Cramer, 2008). Although stakeholders were not explicitly addressed in managerial literature for most of the 20th century, the idea of managing relationships with those affected by the conduct of business was certainly an undercurrent (Frederick, 1960; Smith, 1937). It was not until Freeman’s pivotal work, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984), where the paradigm of stakeholders began to be more fully articulated and explored.

The literature and evolution of stakeholder theory has followed a number of streams of research and complex models have been developed to describe and predict behaviour. This review follows the genesis of stakeholder theory into the modern streams of stakeholder theory.

Historical Background

R. E. Freeman’s work is still debated by those who study stakeholder theory (Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Dunfee, 2006; Frooman, 1999; Jamali, 2008; Jawahar & Gary, 2001; Phillips, Freeman, & Wicks, 2003). At the most elementary level, Freeman suggested that “a stakeholder in an organization is (by definition) any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an organization’s objectives” (1984, p. 46). Freeman offered a visual model wherein the organization was the hub of a wheel with spokes extending out to various stakeholders. Although simplified and at an extremely macro level of analysis, the conceptualization of stakeholder interconnectedness was revolutionary (Freeman, 1984), yet Freeman argued that for subsequent researchers, staying with such a simplified model would be too abstract to fully capture the complexity of relationships. The definition of stakeholders offered at the time by Freeman was too broad; theoretically, it could have encompassed an entire population that could be directly or indirectly be affected by an organization’s operations, so various methods of identification of stakeholder groups and their saliency evolved (Goodstein & Wicks, 2007; Hendry, 2005; Kaler, 2002; Magness, 2008; Mitchell, Agle, & Wood, 1997; Peteraf & Shanley, 1997; Rowley, 1997).
Freeman’s work has been widely cited as a method to identify key stakeholders and manage the politics inherent in those complex firm-stakeholder relationships (Freeman, 1994; Mitchell, et al., 1997). The strategy Freeman offers in this classic work could be used to glean insight on emerging issues which might threaten the firm; furthermore, Freeman was cognizant of the need for a system of corporate governance that harmonized the rational, process and transactional components within a stakeholder framework which would lead to a more ethical organization. Ironically, Freeman argued against the firm identifying stakeholders as separate and differentiated means to strategic ends. Freeman, in later works, argued for a more egalitarian approach where management adopts an approach where all stakeholders are interconnected with the firm. Freeman suggested, in The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions, that the stakeholders are clearly identified and limited the group of importance to: “employees, financiers, customers, employees and communities” (Freeman, 1994, p. 417) which further reinforces the idea of stakeholders being interconnected with the firm. Freeman’s theory posits that organizations that administer their relationships with stakeholders the most beneficially will endure and thrive, whereas organizations that fail to nurture their relationships are doomed (Freeman, 1984; Frooman, 1999; Rowley & Moldoveanu, 2003). Furthermore, Freeman suggests that organizations manage their relationships and monitor how stakeholder interests change and evolve over time and react accordingly to maintain those relationships. Freeman’s work suggests compartmentalizing stakeholder needs and supporting business functions to fulfil those stakeholder needs.

Debate amongst scholars as to whether a corporation’s duty is to, shareholders or stakeholders, has waged for almost 100 years (Bakan, 2004; Coelho, McClure, & Spry, 2003; Friedman, 1970; Smith, 1937). The stockholder model is heavily supported by property rights of shareholders, legal imperatives for the corporation, legislated governance mandates and public policy (Bakan, 2004; Friedman, 1970); however, in this model there is no allowance for the management of those affected (read: stakeholders) by the externalities created by the operations of the corporate entity (Naylor, 1983). Alternatively, in a stakeholder model, corporations are seen as citizens of their community and must act to increase stakeholder wealth not just shareholder wealth (Andriof & Marsden, 1998; Carroll, 1998; Matten, Crane, & Chapple, 2003; Waddock, 2000). For organizations to survive and increase their profitability, they must manage their reputation with the public, attempt to be good neighbours and become upstanding citizens within their communities.

More recently, scholars are beginning to move away from framing the argument as shareholders versus stakeholders, rather they argue about when and how corporations should respond to demands and increase shareholder value (Campbell, 2007; Hillman & Keim, 2001; Yang & Rivers, 2009). Yang and Rivers (2009) suggest that companies will adapt to the societal norms of their host communities in order to gain legitimacy amongst stakeholder groups. Other scholars suggest that focusing resources on satisfying primary stakeholders (namely: clients, suppliers, human resources and the surrounding community) needs, organizations will create competitive advantage through their largesse and thus increase profitability and build reputation (Hillman & Keim, 2001).

Stakeholder Salience & Engagement.

One would assume that identification of stakeholders would be extraordinarily simple; however, Freeman’s original definition (1984) is exceedingly broad and left management and academics with the difficult task of figuring out who has primacy and authority to have their needs addressed (Carroll, 1991; Husted & Allen, 2006; Mitchell, et al., 1997; Ullmann, 1985). Rather than heed Freeman’s advice (1994) about viewing stakeholder groups as being interconnected with the firm and seen as a whole, the Mitchell, Agle and Wood (MAW) model was composed of a model which divided stakeholders into groups and assessed by three converging dimensions: legitimacy, power and urgency (Mitchell, et al., 1997). The MAW model is dynamic in a number of ways and is intended to be strategically employed by management to better cultivate stakeholder relations. One manager might determine the salience of a stakeholder group differently than another manager and thus give the stakeholder group greater attention than a peer; however, the situation may be so fluid that the salience of a stakeholder group could change in the view of management from moment to moment. By categorizing stakeholders within these 3 dimensions, management can determine which stakeholders are most deserving of attention within a dynamic model. The MAW approach was groundbreaking because it was the first conceptual model that posited and attempted to link the attributes which organizations management needed to assess when determining stakeholders salience. MAW’s model is entirely firm-centric and allows for one-way analysis (i.e. from the firm to the stakeholder) and ignores the inverse, i.e. stakeholder identification of saliency in the firm’s hierarchy to affect change. Challenging MAW’s work, Frooman suggested that stakeholder groups with power would override any other factors for consideration (1999). Parent and Deephouse (2007) further challenged aspects of the MAW model and suggest that the stakeholder attribute types are not balanced in primacy, and that power and legitimacy tend to dominate consideration for management with less emphasis on urgency.
Stakeholder theory has focused on the identification and engagement strategies for the most part (Rowley, 1997); however, there are divergent areas of research exploring activism and stakeholder influence strategies on the firm (Rehbein, Waddock, & Graves, 2004; Rowley & Moldoveanu, 2003). Firm-centric research, wherein the models focus on organizations exercising unilateral control over interconnected and bilateral stakeholder relationships, is pervasive (Burchell & Cook, 2006; Freeman, 1999; Phillips, et al., 2003; Svendsen & Laberge, 2005; Swift, 2001). Addressing stakeholder demands and expectations leads to better relationships with those most affected by an organization’s operations, thus increasing an organization’s reputation and brand cache (Carroll, 1999; Jamali, 2008; Wood & Jones, 1995). The majority of work within stakeholder engagement focuses upon how managers are, and should, be treating their stakeholders (Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Hine & Preuss, 2009; Swift, 2001). Although the majority of stakeholder literature is written from the firm’s vantage point, there are researchers examining influencing strategies from the stakeholder side of the equation (Frooman, 1999; Frooman & Murrell, 2005; Rowley, 1997; Rowley & Moldoveanu, 2003; Zietsma & Winn, 2008).
Frooman’s Model.
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