Definition Management Failures....

Management usually consist of people who are experienced in their field and worked way up the company.. Management failures involve a lack of funding for information security effort and a lack of interest in those efforts...The factors of management failures are lack leadership, lack of facilities, employee lack of skill , lack of cooperation and etc.. These will cause the information security of the organization to suffer. I have include some example of management failures below...

Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, May 2005

Exploring Failure-Factors Of Implementing
Knowledge Management Systems In Organizations

Peyman Akhavan , Mostafa Jafari, Mohammad Fathian, Iran University of Science and Technology

Analysis Of Knowledge Management Failure Factors In Calibro

As it was explained in the previous section, first idea of implementing knowledge management system in Calibro Company was a conference that manager of Calibro had taken part in it and also studying a book about knowledge management. Even after the manager decided to implement a knowledge management in his company, he himself didn’t study more and hadn’t deep understanding about the subject. Theses subjects caused that he didn’t support the project in different times and especially at some milestones that the project needed direct support of management. So we can say that lack of commitment and support of management had a main role in failure of knowledge management project in Calibro. Also this subject that the management was not familiar with knowledge management dimensions was effective in failure.

The other factor of failure was selecting someone for leading the knowledge team that was not sophisticated enough to manage the knowledge project. Manager of Calibro made a mistake by this wrong selection because in spite the fact that the knowledge management leader showed tendency to manage the project, he/she didn’t have expertise about knowledge management and this made many problems during the implementing of the project. The selected leader couldn’t control and manage the project effectively and also couldn’t pass it safe through crises and solve the bottlenecks.

Unfortunately the employees who were selected as the knowledge management team members didn’t have competency for this duty. They were also unconscious and didn’t have sophistication and knowledge about the dimensions of knowledge management. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the variety and the number of employees who were involved directly in the project were not enough (only three persons). Also there were only one person who was selected from the company for the team, and he hadn’t high rank of authority in the company. So the selected team hadn’t good familiarity with the organization and its internal relations and occasionally the project implementation faced with crises. Also lack of someone that hadn’t higher rank of authorities in the company caused that knowledge management team hadn’t had enough strength for maneuvering in the organization.

Wrong planning and incorrect forecasting about the dimensions of the project were the other important failure factors of the project. Knowledge team leader didn’t consider that the project took so long and due to increasing the time of project, he/she missed control on it.

Considering the fact that implementing an important project such as knowledge management system needs money, it is necessary to assign separate and suitable budget for it. But in Calibro this wasn’t done and the project started and continued by current budget of Calibro laboratories. This faced the project with financial problems because an independent budget hadn’t assigned to it.

Lack of cooperation between organization employees and knowledge management team is the other factor of project failure. We should consider the main reasons of this in some topics such as lack of suitable infrastructure, lack of transparent support of management between employees, organizational culture and finally resistance against the change. When the employees understood that top management didn’t support the project directly and also didn’t know the project as a high priority, so they didn’t cooperate with the project and said sentences such as: ”… I have other important projects in my hand, the priority of this project is lower than current projects, I don’t have enough time to do this projects …”

Organizational culture also plays an important role in knowledge management projects in the organizations, but in Calibro, suitable culture was not prepared. The employees were also worry about the changes during knowledge management systems implementation and top management and the team leader didn’t have any program to conquer the resistance against the change. This factor was the other reason of knowledge management system failure in Calibro Company.

As the current systems of Calibro had not been studied completely, knowledge management team faced with many problems during the creation of knowledge storage bases and repositories especially when they understood nonconformities between new systems and current systems. For solving these problems, it was necessary to spend much more money and time, so this factor also played an important role in knowledge management failure.

The ten most important failure factors of knowledge management system implementation are summarized below:

1. Lack of familiarity of top management with dimensions of KM and its requirement

2. Selecting an unsophisticated and inexperienced person for leading KM team

3. Improper selection of knowledge team members

4. Wrong planning and improper forecasting for the project

5. Lack of separate budget for knowledge management project

6. Organizational culture

7. Lack of support and commitment of top management

8. Resistance against the change

9. Inability of KM team for distinguishing organizational relations

10. Nonconformities between current systems and new systems

These factors and the relations between them have been illustrated in Figure 1. As it has been depicted in the figure, lack of CEO support and commitment is located in the center of the figure that shows the violent importance of this factor clearly. Considering the lack of CEO support and commitment, some factors follow it. Improper team leader selection, lack of separate budget for knowledge management project, lack of familiarity mensions and also lack of cooperation between knowledge team and employees are the factors that run after lack of CEO support and commitment.

Of course when the CEO himself doesn’t support the project directly and doesn’t commit to it, he is not sensitive to selecting a meritorious person for leading the project. He also doesn’t feel that he himself should understand knowledge management deeply and because of lack of familiarity with the dimensions of the project, he will not support allocation a separate budget for it, so the project faces with financial problems during implementation. Also when the other employees understand that CEO himself doesn’t mind and support the project, so they don’t cooperate with knowledge team members and the project faces with some obstacles in progress . It is also depicted in the figure 1, knowledge team leader plays an important role and if he/she isn’t selected properly and doesn’t have sophistication, the project will face with some problems such as incorrect planning and forecasting. Also as the team leader doesn’t have enough knowledge and sophistication about the project , so he/she will mistake in selecting team members including problems about the number and also variety of specialists that are needed for putting the project forward. Lack of enough knowledge for team leader also makes some problems for adapting available system with new systems. It shouldn’t be forgotten that some organizational problems such as available culture and organizational relations, existing systems and also resistance against the change are the other main factors that play important role in failure of knowledge management efforts, specially the factor of resistance against the change is a subject that should be studied carefully by CEO and knowledge management team leader through organizational culture.

___________________________________________________________________

Peyman Akhavan , Mostafa Jafari, Mohammad Fathian, Iran University of Science and Technology, “Exploring Failure-Factors Of Implementing Knowledge Management Systems In Organizations”, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, May 2005.

Interviewed With Madam Ayu

Based on the interviewed with Madam Ayu Rafikah, on 13th February 2009, I have gained a lot of knowledge about management failures in organizations. According to Madam Ayu, there are so many factors of management failures. The most factors are poor leadership which is lack of observation, communication, and monitoring the employees. The leadership seldom updates their employee’s job. Every organization has their own aim and goal to achieve but because of these factors, they cannot achieve their aims.

Next factor is lack of facilities and environmental surrounding also causes management failures. For example, when the company needs to do something but their facilities and equipments are not enough, it will stop them from continuing their own works.

Beside that, lack in financial also lead to management failures. Where the company do not manage properly the budgets. It will cause many problems such as not enough money to do something.

____________________________________________________________________

Interviewed by Madam Ayu Rafikah, Lecturer of Information Literacy at Center For Foundation Studies, IIUM, 13 February 2009.

Answers to Management Failures

Multimedia Information Strategic Planning (MISP)

ANSWERS TO ASSIGNMENT NO. 2

Under what circumstances do strategic plans fail?

There are many reasons why strategic plans fail, especially:

1. Failure to understand the customer (why do they buy, is there a real need for

the product, inadequate or incorrect marketing research)

2. Inability to predict environmental reaction (what will competitors do, fighting

Brands, price wars, will government intervene)

3. Over-estimation of resource competence (can the staff, equipment, and

processes handle the new strategy, failure to develop new employee and

Management skills)

4. Failure to coordinate (reporting and control relationships not adequate,

Organizational structure not flexible enough)

5. Failure to obtain senior management commitment (failure to get management

Involved right from the start, failure to obtain sufficient company resources to

Accomplish task)

6. Failure to obtain employee commitment (new strategy not well explained to

Employees, no incentives given to workers to embrace the new strategy)

7. Under-estimation of time requirements (no critical path analysis done)

8. Failure to follow the plan (no follow through after initial planning, no tracking

of progress against plan, no consequences for above)

9. Failure to manage change (Inadequate understanding of the internal

resistance to change, Lack of vision on the relationships between processes,

technology and organization)

10. Poor communications (Insufficient information sharing among stakeholders,

Exclusion of stakeholders and delegates)

____________________________________________________
Multimedia Information Strategic Planning (MISP), Multimedia University Cyberjaya , “ANSWERS TO ASSIGNMENT NO. 2”, 2 Dec 2005 <http://pesona.mmu.edu.my/~wruslan/MISP1/Assignments/detail/Answer-Assignment-2.pdf > (12 February 2009)

Example of Management Failure by DEPUTY MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCES MALAYSIA

SPEECH BY YB DATUK ABDUL RAHMAN BAKAR
DEPUTY MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCES MALAYSIA
AT THE CATTLEYA 1, PARK ROYAL KUALA LUMPUR

30TH OCTOBER 2007 (9.00 A.M)

Assalamualaikum and good morning to all of you. Thank God for giving us this opportunity to be present here and to assure this conference will educate and benefit to us successfully.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Management usually consists of people who are experienced and expert in their field, and who have worked their way up the company. In simple sense, every company has their own human resources. Human Resources management means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirements.

Personnel management is a responsibility of all those who manage people as well as being a description of the work of those who are employed as specialists. It is that part of management which is concerned with the people at work and with their relationships within an enterprise. It applies not only to industry and commerce but to all fields of employment. Personnel management is a responsibility of all line managers in an organization, such as general manager, production manager, marketing manager, finance manager, etc., and it is a staff function, i.e., it is the function of personnel manager who is appointed as a specialist.

All managers in the organization are aim to achieve organizational goals through other people’s efforts. Human resource management is a part of management. This part is concerned with the people and their relationship within an organization. A manager must be obeyed. A manager may only have obtained his position of authority through time and loyalty given to the company, not as a result of his leadership qualities. A manager knows how each layer of the system works and may also possess a good technical knowledge. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation.

There are a number of factors which differentiate between success and failure. There are some factor that make management failures:

The most is from an employee who is difficult to manage can make your organization absolutely miserable. They can be every bit as disruptive to the forward progress of your company as an employee who lacks the skills or initiative to do the job well. Often there is some issue that is causing the negative behavior he or she is exhibiting. Many times employees will be very reluctant to discuss these issues, whether they are professional or personal in nature. A casual, relaxed setting may put them at ease. They may open up and tell you what’s really bugging them. They may have the perception that they are not appreciated. They may feel they have not been complimented adequately for work well done. They may feel they deserve more attention. Remember, you should always be liberal with compliments. Key employees especially need attention from you. But this is advice that is easier to give than heed.

On the other hand, sometimes a difficult-to-manage employee’s behavior is the result of personal problems—an ailing parent, a runaway child, a divorce, or financial difficulties. In this case, you want to show that you understand the predicament. If at all possible, offer the employee time off or an adjustment in work hours so that he or she can focus on resolving the personal dilemma. However, if the problem is of an ongoing nature and is having a serious negative impact on your workplace, you need to let the person know that some sort of resolution is imperative such as have a formal, closed-door meeting with the employee and address the most obvious examples of his or her inappropriate behavior in a forthright manner. If an employee remains difficult despite all attempts at building rapport or providing help, you need to make a careful assessment. If the employee is truly exhibiting behavior problems that seriously disrupt the workplace; you need to take further action. Consider issuing a written warning that details the specific problems as clearly as possible. If, after issuing such a warning, the employee’s bad behavior persists, you may feel that the only solution is termination. Consult with an attorney before dismissing the employee. You need to know whether or not you have a strong enough case to withstand a potential lawsuit for wrongful firing. An employee who has been fired for issues relating to difficult behavior is much more likely to sue you than an employee fired due to poor work performance.

To ensure the success of a performance management system, managers have to devote a significant amount of their time to the process. Often the success or failure of a performance management system has less to do with the chosen metrics and templates used for managing the system, and more to do with the honesty and rigor used in the process.

All too often, performance management systems fail because they are either measurement systems, where little is done to interpret the results and take corrective action, or the system is simply delegated to the bottom drawer because it is cumbersome and managers have not bought into the process.

A well-designed and implemented performance management system will ensure that there is open and honest communication between all layers of the organization. It will ensure that managers have the authority to manage, while there is an assurance to their bosses that agreed levels of performance will be met. A good performance management system should focus not only on the achievement of a metric but also on the reasons behind the achievement or non-achievement of the metric in relation to a target. Performance Management implementation either succeeds or fails, based on whether the management buys into the process. If a robust change management process does not run alongside the process of implementing performance management, it is bound to fail. Complete management buy-in at all levels is crucial to ensuring the success of the system.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For example, reducing Research and Development costs may bolster short-term performance but could have disastrous consequences for the business in the long term. When identifying the priority value drivers, it is important to take the following into account:* Will focusing on the driver have a material impact on business performance* Does management have control over the factors which influence the driver, or do the external environment and asset constraints prevent them from having a meaningful impact?* Does the driver have any unintended consequences, such as managing inventory levels to the detriment of customer service?* Is the driver sustainable, or is it a one time cost reduction or synergy? Once these factors have been considered, the important value drivers can be ranked in order of priority, appropriate value metrics can be assigned to the drivers and they can be cascaded throughout the organization.

Opportunities for employee development should be identified and implemented during the review process. The final consideration when designing and implementing an effective performance management system is to ensure that the top performers are adequately rewarded and recognized. Well-designed incentive schemes should differentiate between top performers and the rest of the organization

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many people in both the public and private sectors are not aware about the importance of quality. Quality is the perception of superiority or a sense of appreciation by customers to satisfy their needs. It is perceived by different people differently. Organizations can apply several tools and techniques to improve quality. The popular among them are benchmarking, outsourcing, speed, ISO 9000 and statistical quality control techniques. Benchmarking is the process of searching the best practice among competitors that leads to superior performance. It is an evaluation and comparison of one's products and processes with the very best competitors. It is a very specific form of environmental scanning. Benchmarking involves looking at similar firms to understand how they have achieved the best performance levels. It helps to examine the process behind excellent performance. This helps organizations to develop the best practices to improve the performance level. Application of benchmarking involves: understanding in detail the existing business practices, analyzing the business process, comparing one's business performance with that of others and taking the steps necessary to close the performance gap. Outsourcing is the process of subcontracting some of the jobs to another organization to bring quality and get the benefit of specialization. It is an important means of reducing cost and improving quality.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

An organization performing each and every activity by itself may not be able to perform its activities efficiently and effectively. Increasing speed will give organizations a strategic advantage and help them to complete the task more effectively. Achieving a more productive workforce means three things:

I. improving labour utilization, so that more of us are working;

II. Improving workforce skills, so that we work smarter; and

III. Increasing the level of capital investment per worker, so that we get the best leverage from those skills.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very glad that today, participants from various organization, levels and countries have gathered together to address this issue. I would like to urge all of you to use all chances that we have today to ask, seek advice and guidance, listen and learn to gain a better understanding on this related matter of human resource. I am confident that this conference will achieve its objectives and help you to improve people performance at your own organization. With that, In the name of God, most gracious and most merciful, I hereby declare the Performance Management Conference, open.
Thank you.

___________________________________________________________________

Pejabat Timbalan Menteri Sumber Manusia, “Laman Web Rasmi Kementerian Sumber Manusia, Malaysia”, 30.10.2007, Malaysia>(12 February 2009)

Why an MIS Might Fail

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS)

Why an MIS Might Fail

Five factors that could cause the failure of such an information system. MIS systems are complex and expensive pieces of software, and many people are involved with the design both within the organization and from outside. Often they are built by software houses to the precise requirements of the organization. So the client organization needs to be very clear as to what it wants, and the software house analysts need also to be very clear about the requirements. MIS failures can be expensive and bring bad publicity to all parties. They can arise due to:

• Inadequate analysis - problems, needs and constraints aren’t understood in the early stages.
• Lack of management involved in the design – wrong expectations of a new system / no-one understands the system.
• Emphasis on the computer system – Need procedures for handling input and output / select the right hardware and software
• Concentration on low-level data processing – Information must be easily accessible and understood
• Lack of management knowledge of ICT systems and capabilities – managers know what they want from the system but don’t understand the technology
• Lack of teamwork – An ICT manager must co-ordinate the accounts, marketing, sales etc. departments and help everyone understand the benefits of the system
• Lack of professional standards – All systems need clear documentation that all users can understand (not just the ICT literate)

Organizations can judge how successful the implementation of an MIS system has been by applying the following evaluations:

• High level of use - Is it actually used? Some systems don’t become operational for reasons such as it taking too long to enter data.
• High level of user satisfaction - Do users like the systems?
• Accomplishment of original objectives - Have the objectives specified in the analysis stage been achieved?
• Appropriate nature of use - Is the software being correctly used? Has proper training been given?
• Institutionalization of the system - Has it been taken on board enthusiastically_______________________________________________________________
  

“Management Information System (MIS)”, n.d, <> (12 February 2009)

Example of Management Failures in Online English Education

Analysis of Difficulties Related to Management Failure in Online English Education

Bad management has the effect of undermining the entire system. For example the Beiwai Online English Education System has such main management levels constructed to serve the learners: the headquarters, the local centers including the local tutors. If each level is responsible enough, the learners can obtain help accordingly

In my own experience with online English learning, local centers as the level of the management network at the closest “interactive layer” (Gu Yueguo 2000) play a central role in bridging the gap between online and traditional learning. When the local center operates in a professional and effective manner, the chance of a successful outcome is increased substantially. However, when the local center performs poorly many problems are created down line. Analysis of possible causes of failure in management service of a local center:

One of main causes of breakdowns in local center management may be related to the local centers special status…

l Firstly, the liaison function of local centers is often not consistent or reliable.

l Secondly, poor tutorial arrangement can have adverse effects on successful outcomes.

l Thirdly, at times, the local center pays little or no attention to special online activities organized by the headquarters for the learners, such as the excellent learners’ activity, or the excellent monitors’ activity.

l Fourthly, online assignments are often not downloaded on time by the local center; sometimes the delay is so acute that deadlines are past, which causes difficulties for both the headquarters and tutors.

The four examples cited above of the failure in the management of a local center are drawn from personal experience. These lapses in quality control adversely affect the entire operating system. Learners, tutors, the headquarters reputation, and even the reputation of the local centers themselves all suffer from such poor services.

The failure in management at the local center not only causes negative experiences for the learners but also for the tutor. The tutor’s sense of responsibility for learners tends to draw learners closer; therefore when local centers fail to provide services, learners immediately turn to the tutor for assistance with non-academic problems.

In china today online learning is in its embryonic stage, therefore Chinese online developers and educators must realize that it is essentially important to deal with any structural problems, which arise immediately, before they become a permanent component of online learning. The important decisions that online developers and educators make today will certainly affect the future development of online learning in China. It must be pointed out that the examples of problems experienced by Beiwei online with local center performance are not Beiwei’s alone but exemplifies wider structural problems experienced by many online providers in China. Local tutorial centers, as previously stated serve an important bridging function in the early stages of online learning.

___________________________________________________________________

Ding Jiali Terry Pickett Foreign Language Studies, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, PRC , “Analysis of Difficulties Related to Management Failure in Online English Education” Journal of A local center perspective.