Adaptation (business administration)
In business administration, adaptation is the reaction to the occurrence or the anticipation of expected data changes in business subjects .
General
The economic subjects include companies , private households and the state along with public administration . They are all exposed to economic or other changes that manifest themselves as external or internal changes in data. The word adaptation includes the characteristic of “change”, so that adaptation can only be spoken of when there is a change. The change in this sense is a positive or negative deviation from the original data.
The adaptation processes in companies have been examined most intensively through business administration, which is discussed in more detail here. According to Peter Swoboda, the phenomenon of adaptation is very closely related to operational decision-making . In the event of such data changes, company management must make the decision whether to react or not to react or to anticipate or ignore these changes in the event of expected data changes. In this sense, the entire business administration is to be understood as "adaptation theory" because changes in company data occur constantly.
species
In 1951, Erich Gutenberg introduced the theory of forms of adaptation into production theory . According to him, there are three basic types of operational adjustment processes related to changes in the level of employment :
- Intensity adjustment : with a given personnel capacity and resources and constant working hours ( operating hours ), the working pace of the workers ( labor intensity ) or machines ( plant intensity ) is changed (e.g. acceleration / reduction of the speed of the conveyor belt in assembly line production ).
- Temporal adjustment is the change in working hours ( staff ) or usage time ( machines ) with constant intensity of use (e.g. through shift work , short-time work or overtime ).
- Quantitative adjustment occurs if, with constant working hours and operating hours and work performance, the personnel capacity or operating resources capacity is changed (e.g. by hiring new workers , layoffs , expansion investments or divestments ). The sub-type of selective adaptation is a selection decision in which older machines are shut down first or poorer personnel are dismissed.
Gutenberg was only familiar with employment-oriented forms of adaptation, because for him, with a "qualitative adaptation", the relationships between qualitative changes and the development of the employment situation were too extensive. Swoboda, on the other hand, added this qualitative adjustment as a fourth type and defines it as a change in the nature of production factors . Qualitative adjustment includes the qualification of employees, the renewal of machines and systems as well as the introduction of new production processes .
In 1964 Walther Busse von Colbe mentioned the cellular adaptation by changing the branch network in affiliated companies; However, it is a sub-form of quantitative adjustment with effects on the size of the establishment .
Effects
External or internal data changes that have already occurred trigger adjustments to be made. External data changes can be market data or other environmental conditions , internal ones result, for example, from the operational functions of procurement , production , financing , sales , human resources , administration , research and development or logistics . By way of anticipation, adaptation measures are taken if the company management succeeds in recognizing future data changes by forecasting economic and political events at an early stage and preparing for them before they occur. This includes the assessment of future market developments . The expectations about the future development are the most important "orientation points for the internal adjustment measures of the company management".
While the adjustment in terms of intensity and time can be used flexibly and at short notice, the quantitative and qualitative adjustment are accompanied by lasting changes in the size of the company and the structure of the potential factors and only have a medium-term effect. The intensity adjustment has an effect on variable costs , the temporal and quantitative one on fixed costs or step- fixed costs . If changes in employment can no longer be absorbed by adjusting the time, a quantitative adjustment is required in which variable and fixed costs change. If capacity is reduced through quantitative adjustment, the costs do not decrease proportionally to employment because of the cost retention.
The speed of adjustment is the period from the initiation of an adjustment measure to its first impact. It is determined by comparing the cost of adjustment and the cost of non-adjustment. The most important factors for the speed of adaptation are:
- Choice of the appropriate countermeasure , which requires expertise and insight into the causal relationships.
- Selecting the applicable timing : too early or too late adjustments intended effect cancel.
- Operational , market or macroeconomic disruptive factors.
The term “speed of adaptation” is used in a similar way in economics .
With most adaptation measures are adjustment costs associated, such as cost of social plans or costs of recruitment . Adjustment costs are not an independent cost type , but - as in the case of social plan costs or personnel acquisition - belong to the personnel costs .
aims
According to Wilhelm Hasenack , the adjustment aims to “restore operational synchronization”. The plays of flexibility in adapting to actual or expected data changes an essential role. Flexible working time models with adapting the contractual working time to the order situation can help to prevent cost retentions. If adjustment decisions are made too late or not at all, this can have a negative impact on the earnings situation .
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Swoboda, The operational adjustment as a problem of operational accounting , 1964, p. 16
- ↑ Peter Swoboda, Die operational adjustment as a problem of operational accounting , 1964, p. 14
- ↑ Eckehard Butz, The adaptation of the technical and organizational area of credit institutions , 1969, p. 9 FN 1
- ↑ Erich Gutenberg, Fundamentals of Business Administration , Volume 1: Die Produktion, 1958, pp. 260 ff.
- ↑ Reinhold Sellien / Helmut Sellien (eds.), Gablers Wirtschafts Lexikon , Volume 1, 1988, Sp. 232 f.
- ↑ Erich Gutenberg, Fundamentals of Business Administration , Volume 1: Die Produktion, 1983, p. 239 f.
- ^ Peter Swoboda, The operational adjustment as a problem of operational accounting , 1964, p. 50
- ↑ Walther Busse von Colbe, The planning of the company size , 1964, p. 116 f.
- ↑ Eckehard Butz, The adaptation of the technical-organizational area of credit institutions , 1969, p. 10
- ↑ Edmund Heinen , Adjustment Processes and Their Cost-related Consequences , 1957, p. 13
- ↑ Edmund Heinen, Industriebetriebslehre , 1991, p. 546
- ↑ Ulrich Frantz, The basics of a business cost and performance theory , 1977, p. 198
- ^ Mariya Popova, Determinants of Capital Structure , 2010, p. 17
- ↑ Rainer Bramsemann, Controlling , 1978, p 192
- ^ Wilhelm Hasenack, Essence, Types and Practical Uses of Operational Categories , in: BFuP 1958, p. 14 f.