The Context of Business: Understanding the Canadian Business Environment

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Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Acknowledgements About the Authors Part 1 A Framework for Study 1 Exploring Canadian Business: A Critical Approach: What Are the Major Challenges Facing Business? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: CAN CANADIAN TIRE FLOURISH IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING BUSINESS CONTEXT? The Internal Context of Business TALKING BUSINESS 1.1 Changing GM’s Organizational Structure The External Context of Business The Canadian Context: How’s Business in Canada, Eh? TALKING BUSINESS 1.2 Growth in Provincial Labour Productivity: A Problem from Coast to Coast TALKING BUSINESS 1.3 Jobs, Productivity, and Innovation: How Health Care Drives the Economy CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: FACEBOOK: WHEN YOUR FRIENDS ARE WORTH A BILLION! Part 2 The Internal Challenges 2 The Employee–Employer Relationship: What Responsibilities Do Bosses Have to Their Employees? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: IS WORKING FOR FREE ILLEGAL? The Labour Environment and Canadian Society TALKING BUSINESS 2.1 Are Unpaid Interns “Employees”? The Labour Context in Canada: Where Are We Now? TALKING BUSINESS 2.2 The State of Canadian Unions—Down but Not Out TALKING BUSINESS 2.3 Are Unions Relevant in Canada Today? Dismissing Employees Current Issues in the Workplace: Managing Workforce Diversity TALKING BUSINESS 2.4 Organizations Seeing the Light about Faith at Work TALKING BUSINESS 2.5 He Says, She Says: Gender Gap Persists in Attitudes Toward Women’s Advancement in the Workplace TALKING BUSINESS 2.6 Aboriginal Workers: Integral to Canada’s Ongoing Competitiveness and Performance TALKING BUSINESS 2.7 Ontario Employers Have a New Tool to Improve Accessibility for People with Disabilities TALKING BUSINESS 2.8 Employment Equity Resources TALKING BUSINESS 2.9 Immigrants Make Significant Contributions to Innovation CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: IMMIGRANTS ARE SOMETIMES UNSURE ABOUT THEIR LABOUR RIGHTS 3 Managing the Workforce: How Can Business Leaders Best Manage their Employees? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: LEARNING HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE LEADER: LESSONS FROM THE EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE Why Study Management Thought? What Do Managers Do ? TALKING BUSINESS 3.1 The Visionary Leader: Steve Jobs TALKING BUSINESS 3.2 Conflict Management: The Toxic Employee Management Philosophies Classical Approaches to Management TALKING BUSINESS 3.3 Leading Teams in a New Direction TALKING BUSINESS 3.4 Is Weber Alive and Well? Behavioural Approaches to Management TALKING BUSINESS 3.5 The High Costs of Workplace Harassment The Best Management Philosophy? Contingency Approach TALKING BUSINESS 3.6 The Myths and Realities of Motivation The Critical Importance of Trust in the Workplace TALKING BUSINESS 3.7 How One Canadian Company Earns Trust TALKING BUSINESS 3.8 How Teams Learn at Teleflex Canada CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: KICKING HORSE COFFEE 4 Establishing the Structure of a Business: What Does Organizational Design Have to Do with Business Success? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: HOW GOOGLE DESIGNED ITSELF FOR SUCCESS The Changing Nature of Organizations TALKING BUSINESS 4.1 Atlantic Canada’s Overseas Playground? Thinking About Organizations The Anatomy of an Organization What Determines Organizational Structure? A Rational Perspective TALKING BUSINESS 4.2 Canada’s Trade in a Digital World Reengineering TALKING BUSINESS 4.3 The Credit Agency TALKING BUSINESS 4.4 Former Outsourcer Describes How Job Destruction Works Toward a Virtual Organization TALKING BUSINESS 4.5 Out-of-Control Outsourcing Ruined Boeing’s Beautiful Dreamliner Downsizing TALKING BUSINESS 4.6 Loblaw Cuts 700 Head Office Jobs TALKING BUSINESS 4.7 What Every Leader Should Know About Survivor Syndrome CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: PIXAR: NO MICKEY MOUSE ORGANIZATION! 5 Business Strategy: How Do Businesses Generate a Successful Strategy? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: TIM HORTONS: IS ITS STRATEGY “ALWAYS FRESH”? What Is Strategic Management? Analyzing the External Environment TALKING BUSINESS 5.1 Changes in Global Food Sector Call for Canadian Food Strategy TALKING BUSINESS 5.2 Foresight and Innovation: Today’s Science Fiction, Tomorrow’s Reality? Analyzing the Internal Environment TALKING BUSINESS 5.3 Groupon Different Levels of Strategies TALKING BUSINESS 5.4 Dollarama Cashing in on Penny-Pinching Canadians TALKING BUSINESS 5.5 FROGBOX: a sustainable franchising success TALKING BUSINESS 5.6 American Airlines Merges with US Airways TALKING BUSINESS 5.7 Loblaw Gets into the Mobile Phone Market TALKING BUSINESS 5.8 Starbucks Buys Its First Coffee Farm in Costa Rica TALKING BUSINESS 5.9 Understanding the Deal: Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaw CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: LULULEMON: FOR THE LOVE OF YOGA Part 3 The External Challenges 6 Economic Forces: Oh Canada, What Is Your Economy Like? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: CANADIANS ON THE MOVE The Economic Environment TALKING BUSINESS 6.1 Canada’s People Advantage Analyzing the Economy: Two Approaches TALKING BUSINESS 6.2 Growing Gap of Truck Drivers Will Be Costly to Canadian Economy Types of Economic Systems Competition and the Economy TALKING BUSINESS 6.3 Better Farm Management Separates the Wheat from the Chaff TALKING BUSINESS 6.4 Don’t Blame Professional Athletes for High Ticket Prices Goals of Canada’s Economic System TALKING BUSINESS 6.5 The US Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Recession TALKING BUSINESS 6.6 Canada’s World-Class Economy TALKING BUSINESS 6.7 Canada’s Productivity Challenge TALKING BUSINESS 6.8 Canada’s Growing but “Invisible” Trade: Services TALKING BUSINESS 6.9 Today’s High Youth Unemployment: A Solution for Skill Shortages? CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: SASKATOON: CANADA’S FASTEST-GROWING ECONOMY 7 Competitive and Technological Forces: How Do Industries Evolve Over Time? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: FROM PERSONAL COMPUTERS TO NEWSPAPERS: TECHNOLOGY AND CREATIVE DESTRUCTION The Industry Life-Cycle Model TALKING BUSINESS 7.1 The Birth of Biotech TALKING BUSINESS 7.2 The Early Years of the Automobile Industry TALKING BUSINESS 7.3 The Anti-Aging Industry TALKING BUSINESS 7.4 Gray Goo and the Promising Future of the Nanotechnology Industry TALKING BUSINESS 7.5 The Smartphone Industry TALKING BUSINESS 7.6 The Aging Personal Computer Industry TALKING BUSINESS 7.7 Are Mobile Devices Killing The Video Game Console Industry? Innovation and Technology TALKING BUSINESS 7.8 Is Canada on the Leading Edge? TALKING BUSINESS 7.9 The Linked World: How ICT Is Transforming Societies, Cultures, and Economies TALKING BUSINESS 7.10 Embracing Disruption: Lessons from Building the First Quantum Computer Technology and the Changing Workplace TALKING BUSINESS 7.11 Will Technology Replace Middle-Class Jobs? CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: HAS SODA LOST ITS FIZZ? 8 Global Forces: How Is Canada Faring in the Global Village? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: FOREIGN OUTSOURCING AND RBC What Is Globalization? Sources Encouraging Global Business Activity TALKING BUSINESS 8.1 Canada’s Dairy Industry Under Pressure Channels of Global Business Activity TALKING BUSINESS 8.2 Canada’s Exports to China: Still Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water TALKING BUSINESS 8.3 What are Canada’s New Export Strengths? TALKING BUSINESS 8.4 What Helps a Country Obtain Foreign Direct Investment? TALKING BUSINESS 8.5 Is Canada Being “Hollowed Out” by Foreign Takeovers? Putting Mergers and Acquisitions in Historical Perspective The Multinational Corporation TALKING BUSINESS 8.6 What’s the Third World? TALKING BUSINESS 8.7 Think Global, Act Local International Trade TALKING BUSINESS 8.8 Made in Canada: How Globalization Has Hit the Canadian Apparel Industry TALKING BUSINESS 8.9 The Futility of Protectionism Facilitating Global Business: Regional Economic Integration CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: BEIJING AND THE CALGARY OIL SANDS 9 Political Forces: Where Would Canadian Business Be Without Our Government? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: JAPAN’S TOYOTA AND CANADA’S SUBSIDIES The Canadian Business Enterprise System: Fundamental Features Canadian Government Structure and Roles Government as Guardian of Society TALKING BUSINESS 9.1 Should Pop Drinkers Pay More? TALKING BUSINESS 9.2 Canada Post Faces Billion–Dollar Operating Loss by 2020 TALKING BUSINESS 9.3 Should the LCBO Be Privatized? Government as Guardian of the Private Business Sector TALKING BUSINESS 9.4 Auto Bailouts: Good or Bad Idea? Government as Guardian of Business in the Global Context TALKING BUSINESS 9.5 More Cheese, Please Why Government Should Not Play the Role of Guardian of Business Should Government “Mind Its Own Business”? TALKING BUSINESS 9.6 The Dangers of Deregulation Privatization CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: THE WIRELESS SERVICE INDUSTRY IN CANADA 10 Societal Forces: Can Corporations Be Socially Responsible to All Stakeholders? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: THE NEW BLOOD DIAMOND: CELLPHONES Defining Business Ethics TALKING BUSINESS 10.1 High-Level Barriers to Public Trust in Organizations TALKING BUSINESS 10.2 Lac-Mégantic: Disaster in Quebec Models for Judging the Ethics of Decisions TALKING BUSINESS 10.3 The Business of Bribery Do Organizations Make Us Unethical? TALKING BUSINESS 10.4 The Global Pharmaceutical Industry and Human Guinea Pigs Business and Society Corporate Social Responsibility TALKING BUSINESS 10.5 Dragons’ Den TALKING BUSINESS 10.6 IBM and Nazi Germany TALKING BUSINESS 10.7 Corporate Strategy and Long-Term Well Being: Crime Doesn’t Pay TALKING BUSINESS 10.8 Should These Corporate Behaviours Be Mandated? TALKING BUSINESS 10.9 Social Media Gives Power to Customers CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: JOE FRESH AND THE BANGLADESH TRAGEDY Part 4 Adaptation and Change 11 The Challenge of Sustainability: Why Does Business Need to Focus on Sustainability? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: CAN CANADIAN BUSINESSES AFFORD TO IGNORE CLIMATE CHANGE? What Is Sustainability? TALKING BUSINESS 11.1 Cree Village Eco lodge, a Sustainable Travel Destination TALKING BUSINESS 11.2 How Sustainable Is Canada’s Water? TALKING BUSINESS 11.3 Fracking Fracas: Pros and Cons of Controversial Gas Extraction Process Benefits and Limitations of the Triple Bottom Line Framework Measuring Sustainability The Business Case for Implementing Sustainable Practices TALKING BUSINESS 11.4 Canada Isn’t Cleaning Up on Green Technology Exports Implementing Sustainable Practices TALKING BUSINESS 11.5 Leading Change in the Food Sector TALKING BUSINESS 11.6 Convenience versus Sustainability: The Plastic and Paper Bag Debate CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: IS LOCAL FOOD SUSTAINABLE? 12 Confronting Change: How Do Businesses Address the Challenge of Change? Learning Objectives THE BUSINESS WORLD: INDIGO: WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER IN CANADA’S BOOK INDUSTRY Change and the Environment of Business TALKING BUSINESS 12.1 Making Skills Work in Ontario TALKING BUSINESS 12.2 Yes, There Is a Future for Manufacturing in Canada TALKING BUSINESS 12.3 Digital Health: More Than Just Health and Technology TALKING BUSINESS 12.4 Pro Sports and Globalization TALKING BUSINESS 12.5 How Canada Welcomed Bangladeshi Clothing Imports TALKING BUSINESS 12.6 Slow-Motion Demographic Tsunami About to Hit Canada’s Economy Types of Change TALKING BUSINESS 12.7 Transformational Change: Starbucks Risks Core Business for New Unknown Ventures Methods of Change: Theory E and Theory O Change The Process of Transformational Change: An Illustration Creating a Learning Organization TALKING BUSINESS 12.8 The Learning Manager TALKING BUSINESS 12.9 Facebook’s Culture Promotes Learning and Change Implementing Change Through Tipping Point Leadership CHAPTER SUMMARY CHAPTER LEARNING TOOLS CONCEPT APPLICATION: WHEN GOOD COMPANIES GO BAD: THE CASE OF KODAK Appendix: Answers to Multiple-Choice Questions Glossary A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Z Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z