Comp-De

Computer Networks

For most businesses in the United States, computers are an essential part of their daily operations. Many businesses have come to rely on their computers to store and track information, communicate with customers and suppliers, design and manufacture products, and more.

Computer Security

Computers have become such a big part of everyday lifeā€”both at work and at homeā€”for many people around the world. These days, computers are an essential part of practically every type of business, from small, home-based businesses to large multinational corporations.

Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent engineering is a method by which several teams within an organization work simultaneously to develop new products and services. By engaging in multiple aspects of development concurrently, the amount of time involved in getting a new product to the market is decreased significantly.

Conflict Management and Negotiation

The term conflict refers to perceived incompatibilities resulting typically from some form of interference or opposition. Conflict management, then, is the employment of strategies to correct these perceived differences in a positive manner.

Consulting

Management consulting is generally a contract advisory service provided to organizations in order to identify management problems, analyze them, recommend solutions to these problems, and when requested, help implement the solutions. Although there are few formal educational or professional requirements to be a consultant, these services are ideally provided by individuals who are specially trained or qualified in a particular field, such as information technology or organizational change, and who strive to provide independent, objective advice to the client organization.

Consumer Behavior

A consumer is the ultimate user of a product or service. The overall consumer market consists of all buyers of goods and services for personal or family use, more than 270 million people (including children) spending trillions of dollars in the United States as of the late 1990s.

Contingency Approach to Management

The contingency approach to management is based on the idea that there is no one best way to manage and that to be effective, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling must be tailored to the particular circumstances faced by an organization. Managers have always asked questions such as "What is the right thing to do?

Contingent Workers

As a category, contingent workers may include temporary employees, part-time employees, independent contract workers, employees of the temporary help industry ("temps"), consultants, seasonal employees, and interns. In contrast, full-time, permanent employees frequently are referred to as core employees.

Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning Trends

Continuing Education, professional development and lifelong learning are all terms used to describe an educational or training process that is a key component for successful organizations. The term Continuing Education often elicits several definitions, however one of the most comprehensive and applicable is Liveright and Haygood's 1969 version, "a process whereby persons who no longer attend school on a regular full-time basis ā€¦ undertake sequential and organized activities with the conscious intention of bringing about changes in information, knowledge undertaking, skill appreciation and attitudes or for the purpose of identifying or solving personal or community problems" (Courtenay, 1990).

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement in a management context means a never-ending effort to expose and eliminate root causes of problems. Usually, it involves many incremental or small-step improvements rather than one overwhelming innovation.

Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is the responsibility of a firm's board of directors. While management runs the company and oversees day-to-day operations, it is the board of directors that "governs" the corporations by overseeing management and representing the interests of the firm's shareholders.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the "economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time" (Carroll and Buchholtz 2003, p. 36).

Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis

Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis expands the use of information provided by breakeven analysis. A critical part of CVP analysis is the point where total revenues equal total costs (both fixed and variable costs).

Cost Accounting

Cost accounting, often referred to as managerial or management accounting, is the branch of accounting that provides economic and financial information to decision makers within a company. The idea of providing information for use within the company (to aid management to plan, direct, and control operations) differentiates cost accounting from other segments of the accountancy profession.

Creativity

Creativity is an imaginative process that results in the creation of something new, be it a product, a service, or a technique. In his book Managing Creativity, John J.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a combination of organizational strategy, information systems, and technology that is focused on providing better customer service. CRM uses emerging technology that allows organizations to provide fast and effective customer service by developing a relationship with each customer through the effective use of customer database information systems.

Cycle Time

Time has become a key success measure in business. Oftentimes, it is more important than other performance measures.

Data Processing and Data Management

Data processing and data management are critical components of business organizations.

Debt vs. Equity Financing

Debt vs. equity financing is one of the most important decisions facing managers who need capital to fund their business operations.