Consider the difficulties that organisations have had in the past when trying to implement new approaches to performance improvement in business management and operations.

Select and answer ONE of the following questions:

1.) Consider the difficulties that organisations have had in the past when trying to implement new approaches to performance improvement in business management and operations. Give examples of approaches which have had high failure rates and discuss why this occurred. Critically discuss how this may affect attempts by companies to become ‘lean’.

2:) “The only viable future for business is to become a sustainable business in a sustainable society.” Critically discuss this statement with consideration of the view that all CSR activities are motivated by profit.

If the statement is true, what implications does it have for the way an organisation should operate and for the society in which it exists? How likely is it that organisations can, and will, successfully make the kind of changes which would be necessary to be viable?

3:) ‘High Reliability Organisations, as discussed by Weick, have certain characteristics. Critically discuss how organisations can be highly reliable and take actions to follow performance improvement approaches, such as Lean Thinking, which emphasise the removal of waste in operations.

4.) ‘Scenario Planning is a way for organisations to sensibly consider possible futures and to take appropriate decisions.’

Critically discuss this view.

Critically discuss the importance of having good plans to deal with Crisis and Risk, and what that entails, and consider the appropriateness of using Scenario Planning as a basis for developing Risk Management and Crisis Management plans.