Module 5

Subject: ABM 083: Introduction to Agribusiness Management

Chapter Title: Environments of Agribusiness

Lesson Title: The Competitive Environment

Lesson Objectives:

1. Identify and describe the basic economic challenges of managers today.

2. Identify and describe the basic competitive challenges managers face today.
3. Identify and describe the basic workforce diversity challenges managers face
today.
4. Identify and describe the basic workplace challenges managers face today.

Overview/Introduction:

Walmart managers, like managers in hundreds of various types of agribusinesses, have been
very successful in confronting the basic competitive environment faced by all managers.
Among other hurdles, they have dealt with changing economic conditions, numerous
competitive challenges, and a number of fundamental workplace challenges. The ability to
deal with these challenges has been, and will continue to be, a primary ingredient in the
effectiveness of this organization as well as smaller agribusinesses, such as Summer Farms
or Green Things Landscaping.

Activity:

1. Enumerate what are your common challenges you are facing as a student.

Analysis:

1. What are the actions you have made in order to face and overcome those challenges
you have encountered as a student.

Abstraction:

Economic Challenges of Managers

1. The Trend Toward Downsizing
- Over the past several years many firms have been forced to go through a period
of downsizing and/ or cutbacks. Downsizing is a planned reduction in
organizational size (e.g., number of employees, number of businesses, number of
markets served, size of product line). Cutbacks are reductions in the scope of an
organization’s operations (i.e., operating budgets, travel expenses, research and
development, expansion plans).

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 2. Entrepreneurship and New Careers
- People decide to engage in entrepreneurship and choose to go into business for
themselves for a variety of reasons. Many want the freedom of setting their own
goals and objectives
3. The Service Sector
- The manufacturing sector is composed of firms such as automobile companies,
steel mills, oil refineries, computer makers, and agribusinesses such as fiber and
fabric manufacturers, vegetable oil processors, and lumber dealers—all of which
make tangible products that are sold for profit. In recent decades, however, the
service sector has taken on increased importance. Services provide utility for
consumers, as opposed to providing a tangible product.
4. Ownership Challenges
- A final economic challenge we will discuss relates to corporate ownership.
Corporations sell stock to investors, who then own a share of the business. Until
the last few decades, each corporation had so many owners (individual investors)
that no single one of them could exert much influence over the fi rm. Two
significant changes, however, have led to significant shifts in how managers
respond to owners.

Competitive Challenges of Managers

1. Productivity and Quality
- During the last few decades managers have increasingly come to recognize the
importance of productivity and quality as ingredients in successful competition.
Productivity is a measure of efficiency — how much is created relative to the
resources used to create it; for example, how much milk is produced relative to
the food eaten by a cow. Quality, on the other hand, is a measure of value. For
example, consider two inexpensive watches with the same selling price.
2. Innovation and Intrapreneurship
- Innovation is the process of creating and developing new products or services
and/or identifying new uses for existing products and/or services.
- Many managers are also finding that intrapreneurship is an effective approach to
stimulating innovation. An intrapreneur is like an entrepreneur but is employed
by and works within the framework of a larger organization. Instead of going out
and starting a new business, an intrapreneur starts new ventures within a larger
organization.
3. Global Competition
- Global challenges of managers are challenges that come from international
competition. Many managers today really have no choice but to adopt a global
perspective on doing business.

The Workforce Diversity Challenge of Managers

1. Dimensions of Workforce Diversity

- Many different dimensions of diversity can be used to characterize an
organization, including age distribution, gender, and ethnicity.
2. The Positive Impact of Diversity
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 - There is no question that organizations are becoming ever more diverse, but what
is the impact of this diversity on organizations? As we will see, diversity provides
both opportunities and challenges for managers. For example, many managers are
finding that diversity can be a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace.
3. The Not-So-Positive Impact of Diversity
- Despite the overwhelmingly positive impact of diversity, the merging of workers
of different ages, gender, and ethnicity can also present unique challenges for
managers.
4. Managing Diversity Through Individual Strategies
- Because of the tremendous potential that diversity holds for competitive
advantage, as well as the possible consequences of diversity-related conflict, in
recent years much attention has been focused on how individuals and
organizations can better manage diversity. The four basic individuals strategies
include understanding, empathy, tolerance, and communication
5. Managing Diversity Through Organizational Strategies
- Although individuals can play an important role in managing diversity, the
organization itself must also play a fundamental role through its policies and
practices, language, diversity training, and culture.

Other Workplace Challenges of Managers

1. Employee Expectations and Rights
- For many years managers generally believed that workers were motivated only
by opportunities for economic gain. Later, with more emphasis on human
relations, it was thought that personal satisfaction was the driving force in
motivation. Eventually, managers came to see that employee motivation is
actually a very complex process. Each individual has his or her own unique set of
needs and perceptions of how best to fulfill them.
2. Workplace Democracy
- Many managers also contend with issues of workplace democracy—the practice
of giving workers a greater voice in how the organization is managed. Some
managers have come to believe that letting workers have a say in what the
organization does will enhance worker commitment to the organization while
also improving its effectiveness. The workers, in turn, get to have a voice in
determining what happens to their employing organizations.

Application:

1. Suppose you are a plant manager considering the purchase of an automated assembly
line. What issues would you consider before proceeding?

2. Suppose you have a subordinate with a drug problem. The subordinate is capable of
doing her or his work just fine, but is having personal problems resulting from the
drug use. Should you try to help, or should you stay out of it? What if your boss has
the drug problem?

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Assessment:

1. Make a personal reaction paper about this chapter in terms of content, your
experience, your reflection and your application of this topic in the future.
- Use the CERA format for your reaction paper and one paragraph each. Hence, you four
paragraphs for this reaction paper.
C – content
E – experience
R – reflection
A - application