Introduction
In any firm, there should be a healthy employee-employer relationship to enhance productivity. It is the interaction among employers and each employee at the workplace that influences productivity and efficiency. Business owners are all parties involved in the overall operation and success of the business. Governance is a process and relationship that shareholders use to oversee the corporation’s activities. The owners of Canadian enterprises are shareholders or stakeholders operating in the capitalist system, and they provide significant capital portions used for financing corporations. Examples of business owners in Canada include producers, investors, the government, venture capital companies, entrepreneurs, corporate ownership, private equity firms, and consumers (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). The shareholders can either be active or passive, depending on their influence. Passive shareholders do not influence the corporation’s affairs, although they have the legal right to do so when they want. Active shareholders participate in full governance of the corporation to the maximum allowable extent by the law.
The actions of some stakeholders, such as self-regulatory organizations and governments, influence the owner stakeholder. They play a significant responsibility in ensuring the corporation is more socially responsible. Corporations lead in institutionalizing duties and ethics, making accountability for environmental, economic, and social responsibilities typical among corporations. Government-owned corporations experience accountability dilemmas because of evaluating commercial businesses and conflicts with national interests or social objectives. There are various ways of protecting owners and investors employed in different firms. Examples include shareholder democracy, where shareholders exercise ownership powers in ensuring fair treatment and equality in the duties and privileges of ownership (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). Shareholders enjoy several rights, such as entitlement to dividends and involvement in making significant decisions. Moreover, some stakeholders also work to ensure shareholder rights.
Corporate governance is the relationships, processes, and structures used by shareholders in overseeing the corporation’s activities since they represent the board of directors. Business owners play various vital functions to ensure the ultimate success of the corporation. For example, shareholders elect the board of directors to oversee or govern entire operations. There is an existing relationship between ethical conduct, ownership, and corporate governance. Governance influences the corporation into conducting its affairs correctly to meet the interests of shareholders and all other stakeholders, which is part of the firm’s overall social responsibility (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). One can justify a CEO’s pay of 300 times the average depending on their functions and success. Suppose the CEO oversees many activities and ensures the company earns more annual income and profit. In that case, their pay can increase way over the average, provided it does not negatively impact other employees.
Political Forces
The political environment is where a business involves in political aspects of its overall operations. The company can influence politics in various ways, such as voting for a leader or giving views concerning a political agenda. A legal environment is when a firm operates within standard measures to avoid lawsuits that can impact its brand and consumer trust. The government plays an essential role in regulating all businesses to ensure growth. Moreover, the Canadian administration provides firms do not exploit consumers with abnormal product prices (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). Therefore, the management ensures fairness in business transactions. Canadian business will be less effective without the régime because many consumer exploitation and unhealthy competition will exist. Capitalism is an economic system based on different essential principles such as competition, and individual and private property rights.
The Canadian government structure comprises federal, provincial, and municipal levels that play different functions. The federal government oversees drug approvals, banking, foreign relations, national defense, labor law, and employment insurance. The provincial or regional government oversees education, health care, property, and labor law. Lastly, the municipal or local government oversees land use planning, fire protection, snow removal, and waste collection (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). The three levels of government have some shared activities that they perform. The government acts as a business owner and regulator. Moreover, the government is responsible for collecting taxes to curb or control business activities.
The Canadian government functions as a business guard by nurturing young industries, encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI), ensuring a favorable trade balance across the country, and protecting business owners against unfair and unhealthy international competition. The administration also provides an adequate level of domestic employment for the people, and it offers subsidies to allow the local business to compete globally (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). Therefore, the government ensures that Canada’s business owners can achieve a competitive advantage in the global market. Moreover, it functions not as a business guardian in various ways such as promoting political agenda, creating an unfair and uneven playing field, and benefiting only a few people or groups. The administration also creates dependency and undermines the public confidence in politicians.
Deregulation is reducing the number of laws that influence business activities. The advantages of deregulation include lower prices, increased competition, and improved services and products. The disadvantages of deregulation include consumer exploitation, increased consumer prices, and reduced product and service quality. The regulation comprises business constraints for modifying economic behavior to promote failed competition and protect consumers (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). However, regulation interferes with the public interest. The advantages of regulations outweigh the disadvantages, which makes it the preferable option. Ethics of business involves business owners and stakeholders operating in a manner that benefits many without harming others. Business involvement in politics can include voting for a specific leader or funding the government.
Economics System
Economic forces are the nature and direction that which businesses operate in the country and their impact on the economy. Examples include fiscal policies, inflation rates, political changes, security, and energy. The factors directly influence the productivity of a business and product distribution. The economic environment is different from economic forces because it involves all economic factors affecting consumer and commercial behavior. It includes external factors in the broader and immediate economy. Therefore, such factors determine how successful the business becomes in its operations (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). An economic system is a means a government or society uses in organizing and distributing resources, goods, and services countrywide. The competition involves various financial firms competing to obtain limited goods by varying the marketing mic elements like product, place, and price.
Economic elements like land, labor and capital have a significant influence on businesses. The economic elements influence the production and distribution of goods and services. Consumer spending significantly affects product prices, the number of employees, and a firm’s investment decisions. Such external factors determine and influence the success of a corporation. Businesses need to promote healthy competition within the economic market. The ethical responsibility of competition ensures that the business positively impacts its economy (Sexty, 2014). Healthy competition prevents consumer exploitation and improves the economic growth of the country. The Canadian economy comprises a highly developed market economy with the most significant global economy ranking with the 9th largest GDP. The government has a mixed economy with capitalism dominating because many foreign investors improve its overall economic system.
Change Management
Two main forces encourage change in an organization. They include competitive and technological forces, which can exist together or separately within an organization. Technological innovations allow firms to achieve a competitive advantage against their other competitors because the company will use such amazing and new technologies to reduce workloads. Developing innovative capabilities allows businesses to remain one step ahead of others and stay afloat in the market. Competitive forces are also effective in encouraging organizational changes. The existence of stiff competition allows a company to achieve a competitive advantage.
Development change includes transposes that occur within the organization in its overall operations. Transition changes are made by a firm by replacing current or old progressions with effective and new ones. Transformational is the process that a corporation uses to make significant alterations in its culture and work processes (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). Such changes determine a firm’s competitive advantage and overall operation success.
Process change is a vital dimension of a transtheoretical model, allowing businesses to know how various changes will affect their overall performance. Giant global organizations utilize change to improve their performance, improve their profitability, and reduce costs. The change process causes a permanent firm’s operational performance when effectively planned and implemented (Karakowsky & Guriel, 2015). The corporate level strategy includes actions that corporations take to achieve a competitive advantage by selecting and managing product markets. Firms use such techniques to create value and earn above-average profits for their stakeholders. Change management models include theories, methodologies, and concepts that provide organizational change with an in-depth approach. The models guide firms in making changes and ensuring it puts such changes into practice to achieve success.
References
Karakowsky, L., & Guriel, N. (2015). The context of business: Understanding the Canadian business environment. Pearson.
Sexty, R. W. (2014). Canadian business and society: Ethics, responsibilities, and sustainability. McGraw-Hill Education.