Business Analysis: Critical Thinking Essay Example

Instructions

Critical Thinking Paper

Your final paper should be no more than 5 double-spaced pages, excluding the cover page and References page(s). Please organize your paper in accordance with your preparatory steps using these subheadings:

1. Introduction
2. Explanation of the Issue
3. Analysis of the Information
4. Consideration of alternative viewpoints and conclusions
5. Conclusions and Recommendations

Here are some tips for success:

• Consider outside sources if they inform your case. However, stay on task.
• Use APA style for “in-text” and reference citations. At this point, your citations should be error-free.

Consider these Best Practices for a paper:

• An effective introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and sets the tone and direction for the rest of the paper;
• Supporting paragraphs that move the reader from the general introduction to the more specific aspects of your analysis;
• Body paragraphs that provide support; and,
• A conclusion that leads to a natural close to what you have presented in your paper.

Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.

• 1.1: Organize the document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.
• 1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified and so that each function as part of the whole document or presentation.
• 1.4: Tailor communications to the audience.
• 1.5: Use sentence structure appropriate to the task, message, and audience.
• 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
• 2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.
• 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.
• 2.4: Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem.

2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions, or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.

SAMPLE ESSAY SOLUTION

Business Analysis

Name

Date

Introduction

          The success of the business depends on how the company is able to handle the issues that it may face on a daily basis. There has been a rumour that there is a leak in the company in relation to the company operations and the scheduled product launch in four months. From the information gathered, the information that has been leaked is that the company is planning to establish a new product in a new sector and the competitors are aware of such operations. However, the propriety information has not been leaked since it is strictly protected and therefore those companies that received the information are not liable. In this case, it is the employees within the company that leaked the alleged information that has broken their confidentiality agreement. In this case, it is essential to validate the rumour and then establish the reason behind the leak. In addition, there is a need to determine whether the employees are satisfied or motivated enough in their working environment considering that this could contribute to the leak. Once the employees are adequately motivated, issues such as employees turnover and leakage of information are likely to be avoided in the long run.

Situation

          In the past few weeks, there has been a rumour that employees are leaking confidential information to the third party regarding the company operations. This was a new case considering that this has never happened in the company. The rumour started a week ago with some people claiming that some people were either leaking the information for free or selling them to the interested parties which is a clear breach of company policies and the confidentiality policies. The company has for long maintained the secrecy of its activities, especially when introducing the new products or when planning to expand to other areas (Hanim Fadzil, Haron, & Jantan, 2005). Even though this is the case, the manufacture of the core products is often kept as a secret, and only a few employees are aware of the processes that are followed in the manufacturing process and therefore leaking such information is difficult. Thus, the information that has been alleged to be leaking is in regards to the company expansion plans and the launch of the new products which a large number of employees are aware of.  Leaking such information to the public or third parties long before the launch compromises the company operations as the competitors may adjust their operations and this may affect the success of the new products.

Analysis of Information

          Rumour may be true or false and therefore require to be analysed extensively. The involvement of the legal department helps in making sure that are legal aspects are evaluated. There is a need to establish whether the information that has been gathered is true or false. Through this, there is a need to establish the people that have been involved to ensure that future occurrences are avoided and that the company operations are safeguarded (Zhang, Zhou, & Zhou, 2007).

          Company operations should be kept as a secret, and every employee should ensure that they safeguard the company operations. However, leaking the information months before the launch means that the risk pertaining to the success of the new products is high.  The first step is ascertaining whether the rumour is true or false and the implication it has on the company operations. There is a need to establish whether the information that has been provided by the third party is accurate in regards to the leak then the start of the internal investigation is necessary. The legal department, in this case, should spearhead the investigation to determine whether what is being alleged is true and the implication it has on the company employees (Beneish, Billings, & Hodder, 2008).

         Recently that was a rumour that some employees are leaking confidential information from the company to the competitors. If employees are not adequately motivated, they may portray cases of negligence, poor work ethics even the leakage of information. As a result, there is a need to establish the conduct or the employees as well as the working conditions to ascertain it is at the right standards required by the company. Even though the company might establish the leak of the information, there is a need to ensure that future occurrences are avoided in the long run. Even though the employee or employees involved should be punished, the internal systems should be updated, and the company should ensure that the culture is evaluated.

Consideration of alternative viewpoints

         Rumour on the leakage of the company information may originate from the employees, but there are other sources that should be considered as a potential source of information. First is evaluating whether the competitors or third parties hacked the company information systems. This is vital considering it leaves the company system vulnerable to other types of attacks. In case there were external attacks, there is a need to evaluate how the system was penetrated by examining the areas that are vulnerable. Through this, the company should be able to upgrade the internal systems and update the conditions that guide the employees especially on the use of the computers and the external sites. In the process, certain sites should be blocked, and employees should be prohibited from carrying out their personal activities with the company computers.  This is necessary to help in avoiding leakage of information in future (Tan, Wong, & Chung, 2016).

         Employees should undergo training and development to ensure that they are aware of the company culture and what they are required to do. This includes the safety mechanism within the company and how their conduct affects the company in the long run (Molok, Chang, & Ahmad, 2010). Through this, the company management should ensure that the employee is aware of the conduct and how they can be able to protect the company resources in the long run. There is a need to assess whether the information could have come from internal or external sources. There is a need to keep an open mind considering that the information could have been leaked international or unintentionally. Furthermore, such information could have emanated from activities such as hacking or breaching of the company internal sector. Moreover, before coming into conclusions, all the internal systems within the company should be evaluated. The weaknesses in the internal systems may be a fundamental cause for the leakage of the information. For instance, there is a situation where unprotected computers may lead to accessibility by third parties who may also pass the information acquired to other parties (Hoecht, & Trott, 2006). Other cases may lead to access to sites that are not protected by the computer system in place such as social media which may be infected with = malware that may compromise the company security systems.

Conclusion

         Leakage of the company information is an ethical and legal issue. As a result, there is a need to evaluate the rumoured top establish whether it can be ascertained or not. The company management should not ignore a rumour before it is established to be true or not. The second step is establishing the source of information. This is by examining whether it is the internal system that was breached and at the same time determine whether it was the employee's negligence that resulted in the leakage of information. If the leakage of the information relates to the employees negligence or engaging in unethical activities, adequate measures should be taken to ensure that such issues are avoided in the long run. All the legal measures, in this case, should be established. On the other hand, company management should come up with ways to determine the root cause of the conduct of the employees. In most cases, the leakage of the company information or gross negligence may result from poor working conditions, lack of motivation or having weak internal systems in place. Even though the weakness of the system may be established, the conditions that have been found by the company should be assessed to ensure that future occurrence of such events is avoided in future. With this in mind, it is the company culture or the internal systems that are often a source of weaknesses and may be detrimental to the company operations in the long run. The company main concern should ensure that there is no occurrence of such events in future in case the rumour has been validated.

References

Beneish, M. D., Billings, M. B., & Hodder, L. D. (2008). Internal control weaknesses and information uncertainty. The Accounting Review, 83(3), 665-703.

Hanim Fadzil, F., Haron, H., & Jantan, M. (2005). Internal auditing practices and internal control system. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(8), 844-866.

Hoecht, A., & Trott, P. (2006). Outsourcing, information leakage and the risk of losing technology-based competencies. European business review, 18(5), 395-412.

Molok, N. N. A., Chang, S., & Ahmad, A. (2010). Information leakage through online social networking: Opening the doorway for advanced persistence threats.

Tan, K. H., Wong, W. P., & Chung, L. (2016). Information and knowledge leakage in supply chain. Information Systems Frontiers, 18(3), 621-638

Zhang, Y., Zhou, J., & Zhou, N. (2007). Audit committee quality, auditor independence, and internal control weaknesses. Journal of accounting and public policy, 26(3), 300-327.