Chapter : Why is shared information so important in a learning organization in comparison to an efficient performance organization? Discuss how an organizations approach to sharing information may be related to other elements of organization design such as: structure, tasks, strategy, and culture.

Shared information is critical within a learning organization due to the changing dynamics of the overall market economy. Currently, globalization is becoming a much more important element with the overall world economy. The ability to distribute goods and services across borders ultimately enhances the quality of life for all market participants. To do so effectively however, requires a large of amount of data and learning. Data, will soon become the new natural resource of the world. Here, data can empower all manner of activities from forecasting the weather to predicting when an individual will purchase a vacation. Those organization that can properly harness data and use if for their organizational benefits will succeed within this global economy. To properly achieve this goal, organization will need to be able to obtain, process and share information within the confines of the overall organization. This is important as this data can power further innovations and efficiency gains within the overall technology sector. We have seen this innovation and shared information work for companies such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba, and Tencent (Akhavan, 2015).

An efficient performance organization is also important to organizational success. Organizations must use data to become more efficient with their processes and procedures. Efficiency gains ultimately result in increase revenue, margins and profitability for any organization irrespective of their industry. Efficiency gains are much more process oriented as compared to information sharing which is much more organic. Efficiency gains are a result of a deliberate and concerted effort to remove costs from an organization system. It can also be the result of increasing productivity through improved operations or a reduction in bureaucracy...

Information sharing however, is much centered on the culture of the organization which is often intangible. Here, there must be a consistent culture of innovation and sharing of thoughts, opinions and information. Data itself is one aspect, but the organization must have a culture that enables the sharing of the manner in which to interpret the data (Alavi. 2001).

As it relates to other elements with the organization, we have already discussed culture in the above paragraph. Other tasks, strategy and structure are also impacted here as well. With data, organization must be much more nimble than traditional organization. This nimbleness allows organizations to quickly shift their tasks to be challenge conventional wisdom and thinking. It also enables individuals to devised strategies that are much more long-term oriented. We see this with many technology firms who often sacrifice short term profits for long term strategic objectives. In early May, Alibaba announced that it will use all of its incremental profits to reinvest back into its business operations. This in the short term will lower profitability, but in the long term will enable the company to maintain its competitive position. The company has indicated that the investments will be based on data and therefore have a sound financial and operational basis (Bonito, 2008).

Chapter 1: What are some differences that one might anticipate among the expectations of stakeholder for a nonprofit organization versus a for-profit business? Do you believe nonprofit managers have to pay more attention to stakeholders than business managers?

Stakeholder in nonprofit organizations are completely different than those in for-profit organizations. The primary difference occurs with the manner in which management is compensated and evaluated. For for-profit organizations many managers are evaluated on many profit and economic measures such as per share capital appreciation, dividend growth, Return on Invested Capital, Earnings Per Share growth and more. Their overall pay is based on large part on the above metrics in which leaders attempt to manage to. Nonprofit organizations however often have nonfinancial measure in which they use to evaluate success. This could mean the amount of cancer patients treated, the number of vaccinations administered, the decrease in deaths, and so forth. Here, many of the outcomes are often intangible and not fully related to economic performance from a financial standpoint. Instead progress is measure from a societal standpoint and how the overall civilization has improved over time.

I do not believe nonprofit managers have to pay more attention to stakeholders than business managers. Both often pay large attention to stakeholders because their job requires it. Both nonprofit and for-profit entities mut deal with governmental organizations. They must also deal with communities, employees, investors and so forth. Each must look to acquiesce and appease each of these stakeholders. The primary difference is that the overall stakeholder demands. The time commitment is roughly equal, but the demands placed on both the nonprofit and for-profit sector are different. Once for example may look to maximize shareholder wealth, while the other may look to maximize community benefit. Each has stakeholders, and each has demands, the only difference is what these demands actually are.

Chapter 2: How might a companys goals for employee development be related to its goals for innovation…