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MGT-301: Managing Organizations

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Databases

Articles & Journals

Web sites

Books & Reports

  • All UAH Library Company databases
  • ABI-Inform
    Access Hoovers here, and also search for articles on company aspects    .
  • ReferenceUSA
    Contains info on almost every company
  • Business Source Premier
    Find your datamonitor Company report here.
  • Business & Company Resource Center
    Database to research all business and management topics. Includes directory listings for over 300,000 companies as well as company profiles, industry rating, product brands, company performance ratings, investment reports and ratings, industry statistics, financial overviews, financial ratios, etc.
  • Business & Management Practices
    Delivers real-world know-how about business planning, decision making and management issues, allowing searches by a specific department or function within an organization to present highly relevant results every time.
  • Business & Industry
    Has a strong global focus on company, product and industry information. Provides valuable facts, figures and trends.
  • TableBase
    Offers thousands of tables indispensable to daily research on more than 90 international industries, featuring precise indexing, unambiguous table titles and links to full text.
  • InvestText Plus
    The premier investment and financial analysis database on global companies and industries delivers instant full-text reports in their original published formats, complete with charts, photographs and graphics.
  • ProQuest Newsstand
    Access articles from newspapers across the country. Great resource for finding articles on company culture. See example search for Starbucks.
  • Standard & Poor's netAdvantage
    Excellent site for company and industry analysis from an investment perspective. see also Valueline.
  • Mergent Online
    Superb sight for historic and up-to-date company financials.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic
    Provides annual reports on companies as well as news and financial data.

Selected Management Journals:

Selected Business Magazines:

 

Search for more e-journals
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics
    A great place to start for general information on starting a small business, finance, planning, marketing, etc.
  • U.S. Economy at a Glance
    Data includes unemployment rate, hourly earnings, consumer price index, and productivity
  • CasePlace.org
    find hundreds of business case studies and supporting materials.
  • Vault.com
    has company profiles containing information from an employee's perspective that also covers aspects of corporate culture. Contact David for premium access.
  • OpenSecrets
    An exec's political affiliation can often be telling. Here you can search for contributions by personal name and employer.
  • Finding Company Specific Polices and Practices
    This can be challenging!...

Labor Market Conditions:

eBooks:

 

Team Project Support Materials

 

Choice of Firm | Firm's Strategy | Firm's External Environment | Firm's Internal Environment

Choice of Firm

  • Check out ReferenceUSA.com. Almost every business is listed here. Since public and private businesses are listed, large and small, go to advanced search and limit your search to companies with sales greater than $1 billion and Public=Yes. This returns over 1,000 firms. You can limit further by your preference (geography, age of firm, Fortune Ranking, etc.) to zero in on a short list of preferred firms to choose from.
  • Check out all company databases offered by the library and sample documents from each.

Selecting a Highly Visible Firm

  • You can check out the Hoover's 100, a monthly list of the companies most searched on Hoover's. Derived by tracking the search requests of Hoover's subscribers, The Hoover's 100 provides insight on which companies are being watched most closely by corporate executives, as well as sales, marketing, and business development professionals, who represent a large portion of Hoover's customers.
  • Another option is to review Also see annual lists of top U.S. public companies from business journals such as Business Week and Forbes. The idea is that if a company makes this list, it likely has a wider presence in society. However, if you choose a company from one of these lists, make sure it is public.
  • Once you have chosen a company, make sure the library has a Datamonitor Company Report on it (see example), especially with a SWOT analysis section. (Once in to Bus. Sou. Pre., click on "Company Profiles" link at right).
  • Also go to ABI-Inform and run a search on your company to see how many hits you get. The more, the better. For example, this company search on Google produced over over 2,000 hits. (Notice I searched the company field: "CO(google)" instead of doing a general search for Google: "(Google)".
  • The most well-known companies will have books published about them. For example, here are the books in the library on Starbucks. Here is a book in NetLibrary on Home Depot. In the library, most company books are in the HD9999 call number section on floor 2.

How Well Known is Your CEO?

  • You can use ReferenceUSA, Hoover's or your Datamonitor Report to identify the CEO. Many other sources can do this too.
  • Check out the Hoover's Leadership 100. It is a monthly list which highlights the CEOs from the most searched-for companies on Hoover's (as presented in the Hoover's 100). The Leadership 100 provides insight on their bios, company affiliations, work highlights, and salaries.
  • Check out the Executives sub-tab under Company Details for your company in Mergent Online. (If you are denied access, try back in 30 minutes.) See the example for Google in Mergent.
  • Also go to ABI-Inform and run a search on the CEO to see how many hits you get. The more, the better. For example, this person search on Bill Gates produced many hits. (Notice I searched the Person field: "PER(Gates, Bill) " instead of doing a general search for Gates: "(Bill Gates)".
  • If you have time you could look at Business Leader Profiles for Students, located in the Library's Reference collection at HC102.5 .A2 B79 . Dave Thomas of Wendy's is now deceased, but take a look at the entry for him to see what you would get.
  • The International Directory of Business Biographies. Request biographies from David. See sample.

Identifying Your Company's Major Products & Services

  • You can use ReferenceUSA to look up your firm, then see under the "Lines of Business" section to start getting an idea of its product areas.
  • You can use the Datamonitor Report and Hoover's (see the Products/Operations tab) to identify the major products and services.
  • Also as a test to see the amount of info out there, go to ABI-Inform and run a search on the the company and products to see how many hits you get. The more, the better. For example, this product search on General Electric produced many hits. (Notice I searched for "CO(general electric) AND SU(product) ".
  • Check out the Business sub-tab under Company Details for your company in Mergent Online. (If you are denied access, try back in 20 minutes.) See the example for Google in Mergent.
  • Check out VauleLine to see how the lines of business your company is involved in is weighted. See example for General Electric. Go to the top of page 2 and look at the "BUSINESS" section. Each line of business is assigned a percentage based on operating revenue, etc.

Once you have chosen a firm, check out the Archive of Team Consultation Web Pages on the University of Washington Foster Library website. They have put together a guide on using library resources to find info on various companies. The neat thing these guides do is that it shows search examples using the firm as a keyword to show you why the resource is relevant. We have most of the resources at the UAH library, just ask me if you have questions about any resources highlighted on the UW Foster website.

The Firm's Strategy

Basic Definitions

  • For some discussion/definitions on the types of corporate strategy, including definitions of focused and unfocused, etc., see this article from the Encyclopedia of Management: "Strategy Levels." See especially #3 under Growth Strategies, where it defines diversification and related/unrelated, AND see the section “PORTER'S GENERIC STRATEGIES” where it discusses Differentiation and the focus strategy.
  • Also see other articles in the Encyclopedia of Management on Competitive Advantage, Competitive Analysis and Strategic Planning.

Researching the Firm's Strategy

  • You can use the Datamonitor Report, the ReferenceUSA company database and Hoover's to identify diversification and focus-ness.
  • Also search in ABI-Inform for articles. For example, here are about 70 articles discussing various aspects of Google's strategy in the marketplace. Notice I searched on "CO(google) AND SU(strategy)."
  • Search the Business & Industry Database. (Appointment required for access.) See sample search results for Google and Corporate Strategy
  • Datamonitor Case Studies. If there is a case study for your company, it will provide a concise evaluation of how your company stands out in some area of its strategic operations, highlighting the ways in which the company has become one of the best in its field or how it deals with different problems encountered in that sector.
  • The reference set "Company Profiles for Students" has a section on Strategy. Though these reports are 5-8 years old, they can still offer some insight on your company's strategy. See the example for Microsoft.
  • Trying looking at Investext. (Appointment required for access.) Investext is a collection of company reports written by analysts from investment houses and brokerage firms. The reports often include performance forecasts, company strategies, and financial data not available anywhere else. An Investext report can contain wonderful analyses, but it often takes time to find the good stuff. See examples: Investext1, Investext2
  • Find historical annual reports in Lexis-Nexis Academic. This could give insight on your company's overall strategy. Many current annual reports are available at the Annual Report Gallery.

The Firm's External Environment

Basic Definitions

  • In addition to the above entries in the Encyclopedia of Management (under the Strategy heading), see the one for SWOT analysis, where it discusses the concept of opportunities and threats.
  • See the entry on Porter's Five Forces in the Encyclopedia of Management.
  • See the entry on what is an industry analysis in the Encyclopedia of Management.

Researching the Firm's External Environment

  • You can use the Datamonitor Report and Hoover's reports to obtain an overview of the firm's external environment. See especially the SWOT analysis section of the Datamonitor report.
  • See the Standard & Poor's report on your company. It presents a company from an investment perspective, therefore it will cover external aspects that company is facing. See the example for General Electric.
  • Datamonitor Case Studies. If there is a case study for your company, it will provide a concise evaluation of how your company stands out in some area of its strategic operations, highlighting the ways in which the company has become one of the best in its field or how it deals with different problems encountered in that sector.
  • Search in the Business & Industry Database. (Appointment required for access.) See example for Wal-Mart and Labor Relations.
  • Also search in ABI-Inform for articles. For example, here are about 100 articles discussing how Starbucks is dealing with its competition.
  • The economy is a significant external factor, and the Economist historically has done a great job covering it. After you click here, type in your company name in the box under "Search for articles within this publication:" to identify articles on your company related to the global economy
  • Use the Investext Plus database to find investment reports on your firm. (Appointment required for access.) These reports will be heavy on numbers and charts, but these investment firms have to analyze a firm's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats before they make recommendations so you might be able to benefit from their research this way.
  • Vault.com can offer some great insights on your company's outlook. Vault collects surveys completed by employees covering such topics as the company's culture, to salaries, to it's strengths and weaknesses. See example for Apple Computer. Scroll down to the last section, on "Business Outlook Surveys. (Appointment required for access.)

Finding Industry Information

Research on your company's industry will give much insight to the major external factors being faced by your company. Below are sources of industry reports available online through the library.

Researching Your Firm's Product Market

Researching the product market in which the firm competes involves culling information from several sources, so here are some suggestions:

  • First identify major products & services using suggestions under Choice of Firm above.
  • Use the appropriate Datamonitor Industry Report for your firm to get an overview of the market segmentation and competitive landscape
  • Use the IBIS Industry Report (request from David) to gather information about the market characteristics and industry conditions. See sample.
  • Use the S&P Industry Survey to examine charts and graphs showing market share, Top/Leading companies, financial figures, etc.
  • Utilize research from the Packaged Facts Market Research reports. (Appointment required for access.) See sample report on the U.S. Market for Coffee and Ready to Drink Coffee. It mentions Starbucks 239 times. These and other market research reports can help give detailed insight on your firm's product market. The UAH library can provide access to reports from certain publishers. The best way is to search MarketResearch.com to identify relevant reports, and let me know which ones you need. Contact me for a list of available publishers.
  • Search the Business & Industry Database. (Appointment required for access.) Limit to Concept term: All Market Information or All Products & Market Information, and explore those article to begin building a current snapshot of the product market. See sample search results for Google and Products & Services.
  • Use the Manufacturing and Distribution USA reference, located in the Library's Reference collection at HF5035 .M36 . -See the "Product Share Details For..." section to get an industry snapshot of the product breakdown by dollars for the industry. Your firm must fall in the NAICS 311111--454390 range to be in this resource. Search in ReferenceUSA.com and look under the "Lines of Business" section to quickly find out the NAICS code for your firm. This title also available online through the Gale Virtual Reference Library . (Appointment required for access after 4/1/07.) See sample for the tire industry.
  • Search Tablebase to identify the firm's share of the market for the product. (Appointment required for access.) See sample
  • Search PROMT--Predicast's Overview of Markets and Technology. (Appointment required for access.) -Choose "Subject Guide", search on your firm name, then look for the "topical subdivisions" heading. Choose it then look for the "Products & Processes" sub-heading, and explore those articles for current views.
  • Finally, market research reports can help give detailed insight on your firm's product market. The best way to identify these reports is to search in Marketresearch.com. The UAH library can provide access to reports from certain publishers. Just contact David and let me know which ones you need. See an example from Packaged Facts Market Research.
  • Snapshots

Researching the Product Market Conditions in the Markets From Which the Firm Purchases its Major Inputs

  • To determine major inputs for your product market, use the Manufacturing and Distribution USA reference, located in the Library's Reference collection at HF5035 .M36 . See sample for the tire industry. See the "Materials Consumed for..." section & the "Inputs and Outputs for ..." section. This source only covers industries involved in manufacturing, not services. Therefore, your firm must fall in the NAICS 311111--454390 range to be in this resource. Search in ReferenceUSA.com and look under the "Lines of Business" section to quickly find out the NAICS code for your firm. This title also available online through the Gale Virtual Reference Library . (Appointment required for access.)
  • Also search in the Business &Industry Database. (Appointment required for access.) Enter your firm name in the Company field, then limit the Concept term field to "Material use".
  • Finally, take a look at PROMT--Predicast's Overview of Markets and Technology database. (Appointment required for access.) Choose "Subject Guide", search on your firm, then look for the "topical subdivisions" heading. Choose it then look for the "Resources & Resource Use" sub-heading. Explorer those articles, especially the ones under the" use of materials & supplies" sub-sub-heading.

Researching the Labor Market Conditions Faced by the Organization

  • Search ABI-Inform for your company and "labor" and other similar terms.
  • Search in the Business & Industry Database. (Appointment required for access.) See example for Wal-Mart and Labor Relations.
  • Examine the IBIS Industry Research report for your company. These reports usually have a section on the capital and labor intensity conditions in the industry. Request reports from David. See page 14 in this sample report.
  • See the section below on finding wage information

Finding Wage Information

Researching wages is an important part of examining the labor relations of a particular firm. Say that you need to resources that have wage rate information searchable by these three criteria: (1) NAICS code, (2) Local, regional, and national area, and (3) Skill level (entry level and highest paid level). Here are suggestions on how to do this:

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides some of the information you need. Entitled: Wages by Area and Occupation:
  • The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is another survey. The NCS is a little more current than the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has fewer occupations, but does include skill levels for some of the occupations. The NCS is based on "personal interviews and visits," supposedly making the survey data a little more accurate. It provides comprehensive measures of occupational earnings; compensation cost trends, benefit incidence, and detailed plan provisions. Detailed occupational earnings are available for metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, broad geographic regions, and on a national basis. The index component of the NCS (ECI) measures changes in labor costs. Average hourly employer cost for employee compensation is presented in the ECEC.
  • On this page: http://lehd.did.census.gov/led/index.html, click on the link for QWI Online. The QWI is the Quarterly Workforce Indicators database. It only has state and metro level data, and only for participating states. Alabama is a participating state. You can search by metro area and also get state level data. You can also search by 2-digit NAICS code for industries. The wage data, unfortunately, is only average monthly earnings and average new hire earnings.
  • Also try O'Net; (Occupational Information Network). This site has most SIC codes.
  • Salary.com will cover geographic area, and skill level.
  • Vault.com can offer some great insights on your company's salaries for different positions. Vault collects surveys completed by employees covering such topics as the company's culture, to salaries, to it's strengths and weaknesses. See example for Apple Computer. (Appointment required for access.)

The Firm's Internal Environment

Basic Definitions

Researching the Firm's Internal Environment

  • You can use the Datamonitor Report and Hoover's reports to obtain an overview of the firm's internal environment. See especially the SWOT analysis section of the Datamonitor report.
  • Search in the Business & Management Practices Database. (Appointment required for access.) See example for General Electric.
  • Also search in ABI-Inform for articles. For example, here are about 80 articles discussing Wal-Mart and Employee Benefits.
  • Use the Investext Plus database to find investment reports on your firm. (Appointment required for access.) These reports will be heavy on numbers and charts, but these investment firms have to do research on the firm before they make recommendations so you might be able to benefit from their research this way.
  • Examine an ICON report that benchmarks labor productivity for your company. Request reports from David. See sample.

Researching the Leadership Style of a Company's CEO: Ex: Deiter Zetsche of Damiler Chrysler

  • Search ABI-Inform for your company and leadership. For example, this search: SUB(Leadership) AND PER(Zetsche, Dieter) yields a few articles.
  • In ABI-Inform, run a search on the CEO. For example, this person search on Bill Gates produced nearly 500 hits. (Notice I searched the Person field: "PER(Gates, Bill) " instead of doing a general search for Gates: "(Bill Gates)". Use these articles to create a picture of the CEO's leadership style.
  • Try a search netLibrary for your company and leadership. For example, a full text search on Zetsche and leadership identified two potentially useful books: Score!: A Better Way to Do Business: Moving From Conflict to Collaboration and Managing Human Resources in Cross-border Alliances. Both mention Zetsche and seem to give some insight on his leadership style.
  • Try a search in the Business & Management Practices Database. (Appointment required for access.) A search on Zetsche didn't turn up much, but it may it may for other CEOs. Just type in your company name in the appropriate field, and then in the Concept Terms box, limit to the following terms (multi-select): CEO, Leadership, executives, management strategies, management technique. This may pull up some articles that are on your CEO and leadership.
  • Try the International Directory of Business Biographies. (Ed. Neil Schlager. Vol. 4. Detroit: St. James Press, 2005.) available in the Gale Virtual Reference Library . (Appointment required for access. A search on Zetsche yielded a useful biography. See another sample.
  • Search for your company in Mergent Online (If you are denied access, try back in 30 minutes.) and on Hoover's. Both databases have a section on biographies of the top CEOs.
  • See the Company View section of your Datamonitor company report. It is usually a length message from the CEO and will help give insight into what he/she thinks is important and where they think the company is headed. All of that can help build a snapshot of the CEO's leadership style.

Finding Information on a Company's Culture

Corporate culture refers to the work environment. It would include such issues as: Work Load and Ethics, Hierarchy, Leadership, Workspace, Hiring Process, Communication Styles, Teamwork, Apparance, Office Friendships, Mentoring, Work environment, Diversity in the workplace, Personnel management, Employees, etc. Below are some suggestions on how to put together a snapshot of the culture of your firm:

  • Search ABI-Inform for your company and culture. ex.: SUB(Corporate culture) AND CO(General Electric Co).
  • Search PQ NewsStand for your company and culture. ex.: SUB(Corporate culture) AND CO(General Electric Co).
  • Search in the Business & Management Practices Database. (Appointment required for access.) See example for General Electric.
  • Vault.com can offer some great insights on your company's culture. Vault collects surveys completed by employees covering such topics as the company's culture, to salaries, to it's strengths and weaknesses. See example for Apple Computer. (Appointment required for access.)
  • Books: See the International Directory of Company Histories in Reference and through BCRC. See example for the 3M company (word "culture" appears 5 times). This title also available online through the Gale Virtual Reference Library . (Appointment required for access.)
  • Books: Check out the Plunkett's Industry Almanacs, located under the Finding Industry Information section above. Each e-book has a one page summary on each major company in a specific industry. These summaries gives insight on: 1.) employee salary/benefits 2.) A little description on what employees do 3.) a comment on the Competitive Advantage of the company 4.) and more! See the example for Abercrombie & Fitch.
  • Books: See the career guide e-books from Wetfeet available in net-Library. Their career guides and "top 25" books will give insight on the corporate culture of selected companies. Another way to use netLibrary is to do a full text search on corporate culture and your firm. For example, this search: Full-Text: "corporate culture" AND Full-Text: daimlerchrysler yielded 29 books.
  • Additionally, Wetfeet has some information available for free on its website.
  • Books: If a book has been published on your firm, it could provide insight into the company's culture. For example, here are the books in the library on Starbucks. Here is a book in NetLibrary on Home Depot. In the library, most company books are in the HD9999 call number section on floor 2.
  • Biographies on company leaders might give some insight into the culture, as management practice plays a role in it. So check out the "Researching the Leadership Style..." section above. For example, here is a book in the library by Carly Fiorina, recent CEO of Hewlett Packard.Such a resource could give insight into the recent corporate culture at HP.

Citing eBooks Using MLA style
 
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Send mail to David P. Moore, Business Librarian,  with questions or comments about this web site.
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Last modified: February 12, 2008