RESPOND TO EACH QUESTION WITH AT LEAST 250 WORDS and 1 Reference   Evaluate the intangibles they found for DargeanGrix, and determine whether their approach to placing a value on the intangibles is a reasonable approach   Question 1 (Sophia V) Intangible benefits are something that is not measurable, and they are considered soft benefits in that it creates goodwill and buy-in among employees (iSixSigma)

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RESPOND TO EACH QUESTION WITH AT LEAST 250 WORDS and 1 Reference

 

Evaluate the intangibles they found for DargeanGrix, and determine whether their approach to placing a value on the intangibles is a reasonable approach

 

Question 1 (Sophia V)

Intangible benefits are something that is not measurable, and they are considered soft benefits in that it creates goodwill and buy-in among employees (iSixSigma). Intangible assets do not get physical existence, but it adds to a company’s future value or worth and can be more valuable than tangible assets (Murphy, 2022). An example of an intangible benefit is IT department expertise because if you have good IT department and your laptop is functioning smoothly, we do not think how valuable they are. However, when our laptop starts not to work properly, we rely so much on IT to fix the issues immediately. The three intangible elements in the DargeanGrix business scenario are communication, experience, and reduced stress. Communication, experience, and reducing stress are intangibles because they are something that is not measurable, but they attribute to the overall process improvements, such as employee morale, and customer satisfaction (iSixSigma).

Communication is important across the organization and with customers. “To communicate is to convey information, thoughts, or feelings, in a manner that allows them to be received and understood by the receiver” (Alberto & Mercedes, 2022, pg. 90). The communication can be through email, phone calls, or even text messages with both internal and external stakeholders. Although communication is not measurable, effective and concise communication will improve collaboration across different stakeholders. In the evolving world of a digital environment, it is common for organizations to communicate via email, and instead of phone calls, the team members usually text each other. The value can be assigned to communication in how communication helps connect the dots between internal and external stakeholders. Effective communication can allow learning about process improvement for an organization and can transfer knowledge to keep everyone connected (Ahlin & Slumpi, 2015). An organization with great communication will have a powerful impact in keeping its employees engaged and excited about the work they do.

The experience is about how someone feels, and it is difficult to measure. For example, an experience we had when we are visiting a theme park is something that cannot be measurable, but it is an example of intangibles (Spacey, 2014). Organizations want to keep their employees happy and satisfied, and the salary alone does not help in retaining the employees (Shethna, 2022). The value can be assigned if the organization brings in employees with a lot of experience or intrapreneurs who want to make changes for the better. If the employees feel a good experience about the organization they work for, they are less likely to leave the organization so these organizations have less turnover in their employees. When you have less turnover, the organization is not spending more money on hiring and advertising for jobs. Also, when the customers have a good experience with a particular company, they will likely get more business from customers which in turn increases the revenue of the company.

The reducing stress cannot be measured but increased stress in a workplace will drive many employees to leave the workplace. The increased stress will cause other underlying problems for employees so there are chances that the people will call out sick from work. When you have more sick calls, the workplace becomes less productive, and the projects will begin to fall behind. When you have an organization with reduced stress for the employees, the employees will feel healthier and more refreshed. They will be more productive in the workplace and more productivity can improve their workflow. Therefore, reducing stress in a workplace is an intangible benefit that will improve the quality of work and overall employee satisfaction.

 

 

QUESTION 2 (Christopher Hawkins)

After reviewing the DargeanGrix Business Scenario, identify at least three intangible elements found in the scenario. Explain why you believe they are intangibles, and describe how you would go about assigning value to those elements.

Business value is mainly driven by intangible assets. Intangible assets makeup on average 85 percent of the value for companies (Heitman, 2016). Intangible assets are the job activities and tasks that are performed by knowledge workers in an organization (Heitman, 2016). In the DargeanGrix Business Scenario there are several intangible elements presented in the scenario. The first intangible element in the business scenario is the intangible cost of wasted meeting time when troubleshooting issues with the disparate video conferencing technologies (University of Arizona Global Campus, n.d.). The second intangible element is the intangible benefit of reducing client and employee call frustration by implementing a new video conferencing technology (University of Arizona Global Campus, n.d.). The third intangible element is the intangible benefit of increasing call productivity and effectiveness through the use of the new technology (University of Arizona Global Campus, n.d.). These are all intangible elements because they do not have a physical form and are related to job activities (Spacey, 2018). 

It is important to strive to assign value to the intangible elements to be able quantify the impact of each element. For the first intangible element of wasted meeting time when troubleshooting it would be helpful to determine on average the amount of time wasted on this activity per week per employee and multiply that number by 52 and 500 to determine the amount of time wasted for all employees annually. Next, it would be helpful to determine the average total headcount cost per employee and multiply that by the amount of time wasted for all employees annually to best be able to quantify the intangible cost. For the second intangible element of reducing client and employee call frustration it would be beneficial to conduct surveys over employee call frustration before implementing the new product to determine the overall employee satisfaction rating. Then it would be helpful to conduct the same survey after the new technology is implemented to measure whether the overall employee satisfaction rating improved to determine the value of this intangible benefit. The last intangible element is increasing call productivity and effectiveness by implementing the new technology. It would be helpful to record the amount of time calls take and the amount of tasks accomplished before the new technology is implemented. Then once the new technology is implemented it would be important to record the same metrics. The amount of time saved and the delta of the amount of tasks completed can be determined by comparing the before and after results of the metrics. Once these values are determined then the amount of hours during calls that were saved and the amount of hours to complete the tasks that was saved can be multiplied by the average headcount cost to determine the value of the intangible benefit.

It is important for companies to not only take into account the tangible costs and benefits when deciding whether to implement a new technology or update a process but to also consider the intangible elements as well. Therefore, it is essential for companies to determine the intangible costs and benefits and measure the value of every element when evaluating projects.