SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY ON CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 ALBERTIANA ISSN ; VOL. 8; SPECIAL ISSUE; PP SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY ON CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT MEHRDAD AASI* *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Department of management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran ZOHREH RAHIMI Department of Management, Payame Noor University, Karaj, Iran ABSTRACT Nowadays customers are vital factors in the organizations to make them alive. Therefore making affective correlation to them is one of the most important managers concerns in third millennium. The main goal of the current research is to survey the influence of organizational agility on customer relationship management of Gas Company of Southern Pars in Iran. For measure organizational agility four main dimensions include speed, flexibility, accountability and core competencies were applied. The research is applicable from goal view and descriptive from data collection. Also data gathering method is library and fieldwork. Data collection tool was questionnaire which designed in two parts and distributed among 18 employees of Gas Company of Southern Pars- as statistical society- after proving its validity and reliability. The results of applying Spearman and Friedman tests illustrated that organizational agility and its dimensions affect significantly on customer relationship management. Meanwhile flexibility was selected as the most important one. Finally the current situations of variables were surveyed that all of them apart from speed and customer relationship management were placed in favorable levels as Binomial test indicated. KEYWORDS: ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY; ACCOUNTABILITY; CORE COMPETENCIES CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP. 1- INTRODUCTION In a bid to cope with market instability, companies now look beyond cost and quality advantage. Speed, quality and flexibility are being emphasized as means of responding to the unique needs of customers and markets. However, the core resource competencies required to realize the extended range of objectives are often difficult to mobilize and retain by individual companies (Kasarda and Rondinelli, 1998; Gunasekaran, 1998; Gunasekaran and Yusuf, 00). In the circumstance, companies are under pressure to cooperate and leverage core resource competencies amongst themselves whilst competing. Co-operation is particularly crucial for innovation and responsiveness during the early stage of production planning. Through Received at 3 February, 015 Revised at 10 May, 015 Accepted at 6 June 015 the Internet, businesses and institutions now share common databases and collaborate ever than before (US Internet Council, 000). In addition, companies submit joint bids for contracts and attribute responsibilities for design and manufacture of complex products, based on their relative competencies (Upton and McAfee, 1996). The drivers of supply chain integration include advances in information technology, complex customer requirements, intense global competition, and the desire to be the first to market with innovative products (Yusuf et al, 004). After the hype, the web still holds huge potential for BB integration. Now that a majority of companies have

2 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp realized some sort of, mostly static, web presence, the web s new promise is to enable smooth and cross organizational business integration. Web services (WS) seem to be among the key web-technologies that will allow this to happen. Eventually, these technologies should enable the transformation of current static supply chains into dynamic virtual networks of enterprises (BPEL, 003). Proponents of WS-technology frequently claim that WS will lower barriers for plug and play BB integration. Through WS-oriented architectures, current supply chains could become better integrated, more agile and eventually intelligent (Curbera et al, 003). Others have said that these technologies are not yet ready for large scale applications to supply chains and propose traditional cross-enterprise integration methods such as custom built point-to point interfaces or centralized E- Hubs which are able to connect systems through custom made adapters (Peltz, 003). Unfortunately, extensive reports from practice that address this debate are lacking. Dynamic business networks enabled through WS technologies are not yet a reality (Burbeck, 000). The vast majority of current practical work is applying WS to improve intraorganizational integration rather than connecting different organizations together. Most research and industry reports in this area focus on new WStechnologies and standards. Few research addresses the potential benefits to current supply chains or addresses implementation issues. There is a lack of experience reports, case studies, demos, simulations and sample applications concerning the application of recent WStechnologies to illustrate and evaluate how WS could transform static and inefficient supply chains into more efficient and dynamic smart business networks (Papazoglou and Georgakopoulos, 003). -LITERATURE REVIEW Goldman et al (1995) defines an agile company as a company, which is "capable of operating profitably in a competitive environment of continually, and unpredictably changing customer opportunities". This means that the keywords for an agile manufacturing company is customer focus and flexibility - i.e. the ability to respond to the changes in the environment in form of: fluctuating demand, increased demand for customized products, shorter delivery lead times, uncertainty of supply and increasing competition. This will, according to Hormozi (001), mean that the concepts of agility will replace mass-production as a production paradigm. M nsted et al (000) argue that the remedies for obtaining agility are flexible batch-sizes, reduced inventories, and more frequent deliveries. Hormozi (001) points to short lead times, and the integration of design/engineering with manufacturing and marketing as ways of obtaining agility. Abdel-Malek et al (000) list five types of flexibility that according to surveys are the most important: Machine flexibility, routing flexibility, process flexibility, product flexibility and volume flexibility. For these reasons, the road to agile manufacturing includes technological and organizational changes as the foundation of agility, but the planning system is also affected by these changes. As the agile company is customer focused, the planning system must strive to meet customer/market demands rather than shop-floor demands, i.e. serve customer requirements instead of maximizing other key performance indicators (inventory turns, productivity, etc.). To make the planning system more customer-focused, Planning and re-planning must be done more frequently, which means that the speed of the planning process becomes a key factor. Moreover, the goal of planning shifts from internal efficiency to external service (Bitner, 000). In order for the planning system to meet these requirements, it needs to support the goals of faster more customer focused planning, while respecting internal constraints in form of materials and capacity. A keyword for planning tools, aimed at SMEs is simplicity, e.g. in use, architecture and also planning methods. The planner also faces new challenges in an agile manufacturing company. Goldman (1995) stresses the importance of skilled employees, who are able to make decisions, based on the right information. This means 199

3 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp that the planner must possess certain competencies in order to do the job. Secondly, the planner should be allowed to make choices, and there should be no organizational or technical barriers prohibiting this. Thirdly, the planner should be provided with the needed information to make the right decisions (Van AAssen, 000). Figure 1 shows the influence of organizational agility on customer relationship management. In the model, agility and its dimensions include speed, flexibility, accountability and core competencies are independent variable and customer relationship management is dependent one. Knowledge management Speed Technology Flexibility Accountability Agility CRM Top management People Core competencies Personalization System integration FIGURE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Organizational agility affects customer relationship management significantly Speed affects customer relationship management significantly. 1.. Flexibility affects customer relationship management significantly Accountability affects customer relationship management significantly Core competencies affect customer relationship management significantly. 3-RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study was done in a society involving 344 employees of Gas Company of Southern Pars in Iran. Whereas this number seems to be too much, the sampling was done through an integral counting method. So the sample is 18 employees. Also the sampling strategy is simple random. Current study can be considered as a descriptive survey if to view from data collection aspect and as an applied research if to investigate the goals of the study. To collect the data library method (to refer to books, articles, libraries, etc...) and fieldworks (questionnaire) was being used. For gathering data, a questionnaire in two parts was designed with 46 questions with 5 point likert scale. To analyze the data SPSS 19 and Spearman, Friedman and binomial tests along with Entropy technique were utilized. NZ pq 1 n ( N 1) Z (1.96) (0.5) pq 343 (0.05) (1.96) (0.5) 18 The management experts were being asked to evaluate the validity of questionnaires. For this mean, the questionnaires were given to some professors and experts in management, and after their modifications were being applied and they confirmed it, the questionnaires were given to the participants. To determine the questionnaires' reliability, the 'Cronbach Alpha technique' was applied. For this purpose, 30 00

4 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp people were chosen by random (from the statistical samples) and the questionnaires were given to them. The 'Cronbach Alpha' values for all variables were calculated. These values support the reliability of questionnaires, because the calculated results for Cronbach s alpha are more than (0.7). Variables TABLE 1: THE RESULTS OF RELIABILITY Agility Flexibility 0.89 Accountability Speed 0.73 Core competencies CRM Cronbach Alpha 4.-3-FRIEDMAN TEST To survey the influence of customer relationship management and its dimensions on Competitive advantage, Friedman test was applied. The results are presented in Table 4. As Table 4 shows customer relationship management and its remained dimensions affect significantly on competitive advantage. TABLE 4: RESULTS OF USING FRIEDMAN TEST Path Standard Sig Result Agility on CRM error Significant Flexibility on CRM Accountability on CRM Speed on CRM Core competencies on CRM influence 4-DATA ANALYSIS 4-1-KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV TEST The test was applied to survey normality of statistical society. As Table illustrates that normality of normality of statistical society was rejected, so some nonparametric tests were applied. TABLE : THE RESULTS OF APPLYING KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV Variables Sig CRM Competitive advantage SPEARMAN TEST To investigate the relationship between agility and its indices with CRM, this test was used. The results are shown in Table 3. TABLE 3: THE RESULTS OF USING SPEARMAN TEST Correlations Spearman Sig Result Agility with CRM Sig Flexibility with CRM Sig Accountability with CRM Sig Speed with CRM Sig Core competencies with CRM Sig As Table 3 shows, there are positive and significant correlation organizational agility and its dimensions with CRM (sig<0.05). 4-4-ENTROPY TECHNIQUE The technique was applied to prioritize customer relationship management dimensions. Tables 5 illustrates that flexibility and accountability were selected as the most important dimensions. TABLE 5: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING ENTROPY TECHNIQUE Dimensions Accountability Flexibility Speed Core competencies Weight Rank 4-5- BINOMIAL TEST Binomial test has been applied to measure the CRM, organizational agility and its dimensions in statistical society. The results are shown in Table 6. As Table 6 shows all variables apart from speed and CRM were placed in high levels. TABLE 6: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING BINOMIAL TEST Variables observed Sig Result Agility prop Fav Flexibility Fav Accountability Fav Speed UnFav Core competencies Fav CRM UnFav

5 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp CONCLUSION The research with the purpose of surveying the influence of organizational agility o customer relationship management was done in a society includes 18 employees of Gas Company of Southern Pars. For this mean we applied Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to survey normality of statistical society. The results illustrated that organizational agility and its dimensions had significant influence on customer relationship management. Among organizational agility, flexibility was selected as the most important ones. Meanwhile all variables apart from speed and customer relationship management were placed in favorable levels. Attending to the results managers are advised to: Utilizing updated and modern systems and technologies to prevent creating bottle neck Applying various consultants to survey different production methods and selecting the top one Preparing appropriate in lack times to safe stocks and also final productions Analyzing current demands to forecast future ones Attending customers needs and desires and doing in their needs Considering some stocks as safety stock Creating team works and independent groups and making educational courses for employees Putting experienced people in production department Acquiring necessary information about new and updated technologies Making more relations to customers by periodic meetings REFERENCES [1] Abdel-Malek, Layek; Das, Sanchoy K; Wolf, Carl, Design and implementation of flexible manufacturing solutions in agile enterprises, International Journal of Agile Management Systems; Volume No.3; 000 [] Bittner, M. (000) E-Business Requires Supply Chain Event Management, AMR Research, Nov. 000, Reoortl3167.OOf, membership required [3] BPEL, (003). BEA Systems, IBM. Microsoft, SAP AG, Siebel Systems. Specification: Business Process Execution Language for Web Services Version 1.1, ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-bpel/. [4] Burbeck, S., (000). The Evolution of Web Applications into Service-Oriented Components with Webservices, ibm.com/developerworks/WSs/library/wstao. [5] Curbera, F., R. Khalaf, N. Mukhi, S. Tai, and S. Weerawarana, (003). The Next Step in Webservices, CACM, (October), Vol. 46, No. 10, pp [6] Goldman, S.L., Nagel, R.N., Preiss, K. (1995) Agile competitors and virtual organizations: strategies for enriching the customer, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY, ISBN [7] Gunasekaran, A., Agile manufacturing: Enablers and an implementation framework. International Journal of Production Research 36 (5), [8] Gunasekaran, A., Yusuf, Y., 00. Agile manufacturing: A taxonomy of strategic and technological imperatives. International [9] Hormozi, A.M. (001) Agile manufacturing: the next logical step, Benchmarking: an International Journal, vol. 8, No., pp [10] Journal of Production Research 40 (6), [11] Kasarda, J.D., Rondinelli, D.A., Innovative infrastructure for agile manufacturers. Sloan Management Review (Winter),

6 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp [1] M~nsted, L., Rasmussen, J., Skov, T., (000), E- logistik, B~rsens Forlag, ISBN [13] Papazoglou, M.P., D. Georgakopoulos, (003). Service Oriented Computing: Introduction, CACM, (October), Vol. 46, No.10. [14] Peltz, C. (003). Webservices Orchestration and Choreography, IEEE Computer, (October), pp [15] Upton, D., McAfee, A., The real virtual factory. Harvard Business Review (July August), Technology and Trades Associates (I.I.T.A) Incorporated, pp [17] Van Assen, M.F., Hans, E.W., van de Velde, S.L. (000) An agile planning and control framework for customer-order driven discrete parts manufacturing environments, International Journal of Agile Management Systems, pp [18] Yusuf, Y. Y., Gunasekaran, A., Adeleye, E. O., Sivayoganathan, K., 004, Agile supply chain capabilities: Determinants of competitive objectives, European Journal of Operational Research 159, PP: [16] US Internet Council, 000. State of the Internet. Advanced News Media Release, International 03