Business: Business Process Management Assignment
Part 1
Value Chain Analysis for a University Online Teaching
Firm Infrastructure: Support from administration, information technology, support systems for technology, trained faculty that has the knowledge of the course for online education and knows how to use the information technology devices, and assisting polices of the university for infusion of the entire system.
Human Resource Management: The human resource requirement for online teaching would be expert teachers of the courses that are to be taught to the students online, people who could train the teachers or if need arises students to be trained for taking online courses, and expert people who could train the teachers or students for using the devices and apps such as computers, laptops or sometimes smart phones for taking classes online.
Technology Management: The technology that is necessary for conducting online classes should be the applications and their download along with login processes that students should be aware of how to log in. The teachers would make use of apps like Jamboard, e-Collage and Moodle etc. so that a common writing board for the instructor is available for letting the students see what they are explaining
BUSINESS 1
Service: The post-education services for attracting more online students in the university.
Operations: The computer and internet based interactions that would take place between the teaching staff and the students. Online courses and time fixing of the classes is included in this interaction.
Inbound logistics: The hiring of teachers who would be responsible for teaching the students, which might also include university staff for promoting policies for the said purpose (Anastasiu, 2019).
Outbound logistics: The outputs for online teaching would be the final graduates that would get mingled in the workforce in the business marketplaces.
Marketing: Online teaching is itself a strategy for marketing for the educational institute where the teachers would present their KSAs, students are motivated to gain education and the institute has set target for the cited purpose.
Procurement: The inputs the university might have to purchase for facilitating online teaching would include modern teaching practices, research and development for better online enablement of the education to students, information systems and expertise for their use and cooperation between particular departments.
Inbound logistics and technology management are the two strategically relevant activities that are important in the entire value chain process. They are deemed important for inheriting the required resources for the best services of online teaching have to be ensured by the educational institute. These guaranteed practices would automatically create the marketing hype that the university would portray through its operations and service provision, even in a globalized community. The main support and secondary strategies for the two pinpointed activities are mandatory for future students to meet the challenges of globalization so that the free flow of information, particularly related to education, does not limit the opportunities for students. They acquire core competencies by disseminating information and using information technology to gain differentiation in the higher education field.
The two internal linkages that seem strategic in the online teaching value chain are delivery methods of online tutorials in the operations section and hiring skilled teachers who know how to use numerous online tools to let the students understand what they are discussing online. They are considered strategic because only in the presence of qualified teachers, a free and uninterrupted flow of information may be processed. It is one of the vital competencies of the staff that their awareness with the information technology devices, tools, and applications should be at expert level for making education a valued product to its final consumers, which are students. Moreover, the internal linkage, the delivery method of online tutorials, should be of international standards so that students become better prepared to be competitive in changing environments and have professionalism and adaptability in any workplace. The delivery of course concepts without disruption is the best way teachers and students can meet their respective goals.
Part 2
The one activity in the universitys online value chain for online teaching related to the ethical issue is taking into consideration the individual identities of the teachers and students while teaching over the internet. Diversity inclusion has remained a debate in almost every area of education and business since globalization has forced this in the form of a challenge and an opportunity if managed properly. In education, diversity can prove beneficial if the hired teachers belong to diverse cultural backgrounds. They would be more familiar with how one should interact with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students online. It even comes down to minute details when ethics are involved, such as greeting the students appropriately that does not hurt any sentiments of other ethnically diverse students. Hence, an ethical online pedagogy should be a prioritized ethical concern for the teaching staff that should facilitate interactions based on responsibility, imminence, and rationality to interpret truly ethical behaviors (Aldosemani, 2020). Students should be given the academic freedom for expressing their thoughts in their choice of language, which might be related to their own cultural experiences and that too, with equality so that a culture of fostering diversity becomes eminent from the universitys side that would surely help in its marketing activities in the value chain.
The management ethics that can be associated with the activity mentioned above are eliminating the ethical barriers so that the same educational quality is provided to all ethnically and linguistically diverse students in the universitys online teaching platform. To meet this objective, the management staff must certify that equal advantages are given to all students, and cross-cultural participation is enabled by designing courses that offer cultural inclusiveness (Kumi-Yeboah, 2018). The maximization of learning opportunities to all students without discrimination is the extent that needs to be learned by the instructors so that hierarchies or inheritance of power by a certain class of students do not show in the . For this reason, the management stands accountable that they train their teachers to free their minds of any possible irrationality and be entirely ethically responsible in their instructing procedure. Universal access to education is the right of every student without racial, linguistic, or religious discrimination to magnify their rate of participation, increasing student engagement, scoring better academic grades that would create a positive image for the institutes endeavors towards collective achievement.
Part 3
To compare the shortlisted countries, Turkey and Mexico, Global Competitiveness Report is consulted, and three for the chosen countries are compared. Based on these factors, one of the countries is finally selected.
Non-economic factors that are relevant to this case
Turkey
Mexico
ICT adoption
Turkeys ranking in World Competitiveness Report for this pillar is 69th and has shown an improvement in this segment by 57.8% compared to its previous report (Schwab, 2019, p. 562).
Ranking in World Competitiveness Report is 74th. However, it has improved in this GCI pillar and showed an improvement of 55% (Schwab, 2019, p. 388).
Skills
It has ranked 78th in the report for its skills and has shown an improvement of 68% for the cited segment compared to the previous report (Schwab, 2019, p. 562).
Mexico has ranked 89th in the report fo its skills and has shown an improvement compared to the previous report by 58.3% (Schwab, 2019, p. 388).
Macroeconomic stability
It has ranked 129th for macroeconomic stability while showing a decrease of 61.3% compared to its previous report (Schwab, 2019, p. 562).
Its macroeconomic stability has gone down compared to its previous ranking by 97.8% and ranks 41st for this pillar among the rest of 141 countries included in the report (Schwab, 2019, p. 388).
The final selected country is Turkey since it has better rankings in the Global Competitiveness Report for two out of three chosen non-economic factors compared to Mexico. It ranks better in ICT adoption and skills of the workforce. However, with the SDG goals, there is still a need to reduce inequalities in income distribution. Launching the new factory for producing integrated circuits for drones with 4500 workers would be utilized. The workforces skills would be capitalized on to produce the best-integrated circuits to fulfill the demand for modems in Europe. When these products would be exported, the workers would be paid according to the base pay within the region that their government sets in the relevant technical field. This would be done so that no discrimination and disparities are left to pay their hard-earned salaries. They are paid at the market rate, a major factor contributing to reducing injustice in the income system.
The two SDG goals for selection of the location to launch a factory of 4500 people to produce integrated circuits for drones and fulfill the demand of modems in Europe are enlisted below:
To reduce inequalities (Sustainable Development Report, n.a.)
To provide decent work and economic growth, eradicating discrimination concerning employment would be specifically targeted (Sustainable Development Report, n.a.)
The reason for selecting the two SDG goals is that in Turkey, these sustainable development targets have not been achieved yet; in fact, the country is far below its actual expected performance. For instance, Turkey is performing below average when reducing inequalities as its Gini coefficient has not been adjusted for top income (Sustainable Development Report, n.a.). The coefficient value still implies a great disparity in the distribution of wealth among certain classes of Turkish society. There is a high elderly poverty rate for people aging 66 years or above as significant challenges for keeping their income stable have not been addressed yet. Furthermore, it is performing far below the expected rate for fundamental labor rights as there is high discrimination concerning employment. Research has corroborated this factor by revealing clear discrimination in the job process based on demographics in the Turkish manufacturing industry (Ozgener, 2008). The discrimination occurs at various stages such as appointments, deployment areas and promotions, human resource selection process, job interviews and shortlisting after examination of resumes, and performance appraisals. The same report disclosed another important aspect: age and gender differences have been evident in discrimination in creating inequalities in income, which is more answerable for the poor elderly population in Turkey.
When elimination of discrimination would be ensured, income inequalities would only be certified. For this, gender-wise discrimination has been observed for ages in Turkey. Although limited recent data was available for gender discrimination in Turkey, a study from 2002 supported the finding that Turkeys cultural and traditional barriers have cultivated minds of the employers that do not allow them to hire Turkish females in their workforce has created a labor market discrimination against this gender (Palaz, 2002). The institutional barriers and womens education and training have been persistent that ask for the governmental policies to be revised to warrant an affirmative action for equal employment opportunities for females.
Age discrimination is also observed within the Turkish workforce. A study was conducted whose findings verified that ads in employment posts mention a certain age limit, in which older adults are not included (Man, 2020). Although the data of the study needs further detailed exploration, it does provide a preliminary idea of the situation in Turkey regarding age-based discrimination. SDG goals have therefore been developed by keeping this factor in mind and endeavoring to reduce its impact in the new offshore factor in the selected region.
The steps that would be taken in the new factory launch that would hire 4500 workers to meet the two SDG as mentioned earlier goals are enlisted below:
i. Job ads would be given to including qualified females in the information technology fields, in which graduates from renowned universities could be targeted. This would be done to reduce gender discrimination in the workforce.
ii. Job ads for older adults aged 50 years and above would be included to in the new factory to produce drones integrated circuits. These older adults services and well-informed skills could train the new and young recruits within the factory. The aging population should not be ignored as they have years of experience and knowledge that cannot be gained from the young workforce (Husic et al., 2020). Although the young generation has its benefits in that they are energetic and bring in new innovative ideas; the older population should not be ignored for their endless information.
iii. Pay would be given based on the identified rates from the government for the relevant field so that the income inequalities issue is addressed and the SDG goal for Turkey is met at a fast pace.
References
Aldosemani, T.I. (2020). Towards ethically responsive online education: Variables and strategies from educators perspective. Journal of Education and Learning, 9(1), 79-86.
Anastasiu, L. (2019, December 12-14). The importance of applying the value chain analysis in the higher education system [Paper presentation]. International Conference on Applied Research in Business, Management and Economics, Barcelona, Spain. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339850098_The_Importance_of_Applying_the_Value_Chain_Analysis_in_the_Higher_Education_System
Barakovic Husic, J., Melero, F. J., Barakovic, S., Lameski, P., Zdravevski, E., Maresova, P., Krejcar, O., Chorbev, I., Garcia, N. M., & Trajkovik, V. (2020). Aging at work: A review of recent trends and future directions.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,17(20), 7659. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207659
Kumi-Yeboah, A. (2018). Designing a cross-cultural collaborative online learning framework for online instructors. Online Learning Journal, 22(4), 181-201.
Man, F. (2020). Age discrimination at work and some reflections from job ads: The case of Turkey. European Journal of Management Issues, 28(4), 162-169. https://doi.org/10.15421/192016
Ozgener, S. (2008). Diversity management and : The case of Turkish manufacturing industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 621-631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9581-3
Palaz, S. (2002). Discrimination against women in Turkey: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Available at Dergipark, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/556769
Schwab, K. (2019). The global competitiveness report 2019. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2019.pdf
Sustainable Development Report. (n.a.). Turkey. https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/turkey
