rewite text
Literature Review Small size ship management companies creating scenarios for their organisations not been able to larger extent compete favourably with the large players of the shipping industry. Management as an incorporating activity and cornerstone of organisational effectiveness is for coordination, direction, guidance and right balance provision of its resources towards its goals (Mullin et al., 2013, p. 16). Likewise, management is a means of effectively getting things done through human resources to accomplish preferred results using combination of leadership, people expertise and communication (Ng, 2011). Good management system is for prevention of strategic drift and implementation of transformation change at flux phase, thereby preventing a company from death (Johnson et al., 2014, p. 162), consequently enhancing the liquidity and solvency of a firm, which measures the capability of company to pay its short-term obligations and capacity to service a long-term debt respectively (Yeo, 2016). The cyclical nature of the shipping industry requires an organisation to have unwavering shrewd leadership that will constantly develop and review its strategies and project scenarios for uniqueness appropriate to the prevailing shipping markets for competitive advantage. Companies aiming to achieve sustainable shipping business and mission should feature industry best practices, high levels of good management quality for the firm to be strategically agile and well equipped to compete in the compound, high-velocity, global environment (Kotler et al., 2012, p. 880). ( 70 ) With reference to the relationship between a shipping organisation and its customers, sustainability is a procedure of transformation in which proper use of available resources, the orientation of technological development, institutional change and investments direction are all in harmony to enhance current and future potentials of the company to meet the needs and aspiration of its customers (TWCED, 2017). This will make the competitive advantage of the company very valuable, relatively rare, and inimitable (Johnson et al., 2014, p. 97). The sustainability of these companies through the implementation of effective strategies and customer centric concepts should afford these operators competitive advantage for provision of quality logistics services to their customers. Competitive strategy as defined by Michael Porter is the ability of an entity to be different and could deliberately deliver unique value (Johnson et al., 2014, p. 4) to meet the customer need at a profit. Competitive competencies require an entity to show standards of value, rarity, distinctiveness, and non-substitutability (Hendricks et al., 2007). An in-depth knowledge through information management about the internal and external factors that are driving forces and shaping the shipping industry and its dynamics locally and globally are essential for the companies to know so as to reinforce/review their strategies about their brand management, strategic human resource management, finance and risk management in order to make their supply chain lean, agile, resilient, and green. Strategy is the long-term direction, a goal, and a destination subject to consistent review for excellent performance in the present buyer’s market. Strategy is a top-down method commencing with the organisation mission, putting into consideration subsequently the goals, critical success factors, and commercial processes required for sustenance of the company’s mission (Cox, ( 72 ) 2014, p. 152). The companies should strive for reduction or elimination of errors, and subsequently, improved service realibility to charterers, reduction in operating costs and successful differentiation point (Johnson et al., 2014, p. 202). Likewise, elimination of strategy related issues, quality system related issues, leadership related issues and soceity oriented breaches will improve the effectiveness of the companies business model and excellence (Kumar and Balakrishnan, 2011). MBA shipping and logistics essential textbooks, academic journals and dissertation, newspaper journals and official website will constitute the literature review to improve the methodology discussed below and identify gaps for the formulation of questionnaire for the survey. Methodology Research Philosophy and Approach: The research philosophy that would be explored to conduct and write this project is pragmatism which is mixed and multi-strategy to enable me to apply most suitable method to have significant insights into the research (Wilson, 2014, p. 11). The research strategy will be combination of both qualitative and qualitative. Collection of trustworthy, logical, consistent and applicable data is easier with pragmatism method. Taking a lead from Watson, J., the principle of pragmatism would aid my understanding and the research on how companies conduct their management activities, the operation of micro politics in an organisation and means of maintaining and shaping employments relationships (Suanders et al., 2012, p. 130) in shipping industry. Through objective and subjective view, the impact of the prevailing cultures and norms of these shipping companies on their business models sustainability and strategies would be assessed and the type of leadership role implemented by their top management Personnel which goes a long way in problem solving. Research Design and Data collection: Cross sectional method will be utilised as per the timetable below for the collection of data through sampling among stakeholders in the shipping industry who are top management personnel, line managers and seafarers. The essence for choosing this framework is to acquire real time facts from the interviewees/respondents on the impact of the company’s management systems on their operations vis-à-vis leading companies in the maritime sector within the time frame. The primary sources of data collection will be through visitation as MBA student to several ship management companies of a different type and size and discuss with the CEOs about their current business management models and if they apply business innovation. Conduct unstructured interviews face-to-face with these companies’ leadership, and to others through telephone conversation, administration of questionnaires via survey monkey, soft copy by e- mail. The secondary data collection would be from the academic journals, organisations official websites, textbooks, newspapers, academic dissertations, conference reports, etc. A Pilot study would be conducted to know if I am using right type of interview and best structure for my questions. Once improved, it will be prepared on the survey monkey, soft copy and send out for response, and further interviews would be conducted. The quantitative feedback would be analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics, while the qualitative will be analysed after coding with content analysis for conclusion and recommendations. ( 74 )