Businesses in today's economy often face challenges that are not readily apparent until, more often than not, the costs of those challenges become critical. A businesses ability to identify the fundamentals of these challenges and act accordingly to squelch the damage that has been done while bouncing back is paramount to the businesses success. This paper will identify three key areas in identifying and repairing the critical problems that can occur. More importantly, this paper will also identify several fundamentals within the three areas. The paper will examine some sub levels of (1) analysis, (2) cost, and (3) research. Additionally, this paper will discuss the measures that several companies took in these areas to show special examples of these principles in use.AnalysisWithin the scope of needs assessment and analysis there are many building blocks that complete the full picture. One such block is comprised of the levels of analysis. And within the levels of analysis there are three main points. These points as reported by Goldstien (1993); McGehee and Thayer (1961); Moore and Dutton (1978); and Sleezer (1991) are (1) organization, (2) job or task, and (3) individual or person (as cited by Holton). The following paragraphs will discuss each of these three points by defining and demonstrating their context within analysis. OrganizationHolton (1996) suggests that the three-level approach to needs assessment suggests that assessors should start by analyzing the organization to determine what results are not occurring and should be, and what organizational factors are contributing to that condition. This could easily be interpreted as examining the issue on a macro level to determine if the organization is meeting its goals and objectives or not. A good example of this level of analysis put to good use is demonstrated by Kmart in the late 1950's. In a case study by Hartley (1997) Kmart and the two year analysis of the...
