Explain the roles of emotion and fairness in decision making.

Review the Assignments for this course, accessed by clicking on the “Assignment” tab at the top of your screen, and then selecting each Unit# – Assignment, reviewing the description, type, and deliverables. What questions do you have about these assignments in Units 1 – 4? What questions do you have about the overarching Unit 5 assignment? Although not due until the end of the class, it is important that you begin planning for this project early in the course. What are your initial thoughts about how you will approach this assignment? Explain.

assignments 1-4

Describe common biases in decision making.

Explain the roles of emotion and fairness in decision making.

Interpret reflective and expedient decision making.

Apply the standard of APA style to all research and writing tasks.

Apply critical thinking skills to analyze business situations.

Appropriately use effective communication techniques.

please include:

Do you think Mr. Thomas’ actions constituted sexual harassment? Why or why not?

Mr. Thomas, a 10 year executive with XYZ Corporation, continued to engage his secretary in a conversation regarding the female body part that was a subject of a recent television program, even after she indicated she did not wish to discuss it further. Mr. Thomas subsequently copied a page from a dictionary containing the name of a body part and gave it to the secretary, which in addition to prior behavior she interpreted as sexual harassment. His employer terminated him because of this incident and other alleged incidents of poor judgment. In a suit for wrongful termination, Mr. Thomas won compensatory damages plus punitive damages against the company and his secretary.

In the Discussion Board, discuss the following questions about the case:

Do you think Mr. Thomas’ actions constituted sexual harassment? Why or why not?
Do you think termination of Mr. Thomas was justified? Why or why not?
What factors might have influenced the jury’s decision?
Can you share with the class if you, your friend or colleague have had an encounter with a sexual harassment case at work? Do not use names of individuals or businesses.

Analyze the dynamics of competition using Porter’s Five Forces Model of Competition. Correctly assess the dynamics of competition.

Instructions for this assignment: Perform all of the elements listed below.

This assignment has you complete two parts of a strategic business plan. To see how those parts fit into a full business plan, click here for a strategic business plan outline.

Part I – Analysis of the External Environment

As part of the Strategic Business Plan, you have been asked to:

Identify and analyze the major driving forces for change in the external environment of the motorcycle industry.
Analyze the dynamics of competition using Porter’s Five Forces Model of Competition. Correctly assess the dynamics of competition.
Provide at least three statistics about the size of the motorcycle industry such as revenue, growth rate, number of units sold by manufacturer/country, etc.
Summarize the strategic issues firms in this industry face and identify their biggest threats.

This section should be titled “The Analysis of H-D’s External Environment.”

Part II – Internal Environment Analysis Financial

Gather the financial information necessary to do a complete ratio analysis and the Balance Score Card (BSC) key metrics information.

If you were going to create a BSC, what would be the key metrics you would measure in each of the four BSC areas:

Financial
Customer
Internal Business Process
Learning and Growth

Perform a ratio analysis using H-D’s five-year financial performance. Interpret the meaning of the ratios and financial performance.

This section should be titled “The Analysis of H-D’s Current Strategy: Two Views.” Be sure to include the ratio analysis. You may also include other graphics to support your narrative.

Competitors

Based on your analysis, you must decide which two competitors present the biggest competitive threat to H-D.

Perform a financial ratio analysis for the competitors after looking at trends in financial performance over five years, and compare the trends to industry averages.

Be sure you have a clear ranking of the industries’ competitors.

This section should be titled “Competitor Analysis.” Be sure to include the financial ratio analysis. You may also include other graphics to support your narrative.

Compare and contrast the key aspects that each system offers.

A prestigious university has recently implemented a consolidation strategy that will require it to centralize their student records. In order to move forward, the local university will need to develop a data model that will retain student records and perform various data extract transform and load (ETL) processes. Imagine that you have been hired as a database consultant to assist in the development of a data design strategy for the student records.

You met with various university subject matter experts and have determined the following after performing various business analysis processes:

Faculty groups are divided by core competencies that the university offers. For example, there are groups such as the Art Faculty, Computer Technology Faculty, Language Faculty, and Science Faculty. Each faculty member has an assigned Dean and is designated to teach at one particular campus and school. They are able to teach as many courses as required.
Courses are categorized by course code and title. Certain courses have prerequisites and the university has asked for this to be cataloged as well.
There are various schools within each campus. For example, the Los Angeles campus holds the following schools: School of Science, School of Law, and School of Computer Technology. Additionally, each school offers different professional study programs such as Forensic Computer Science, Marine Biology, Business Management, and Civil Engineering to name a few.
The study path for students requires that they be enrolled in a specific professional study program. The professional study program requires the students to complete a specific set of core courses. The university also requires that an online grade book be available. The online grade book should show grades awarded to students for specific courses and the term they completed the course.
The university identifies each student by his or her name, date of birth, social, and professional study program.

Using these findings, write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

Analyze the university’s requirements and provide a proposal to organize all the required data elements. The proposal should include the following:
1. Provide an Entity Relationship Model (ERM) that will describe the data structure that will store all data elements. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
2. Describe any assumptions or limitations for each relationship. For example, professors are able to teach more than one course or students can only be enrolled in one program.
Create the primary key and foreign keys using a UML Class diagram for each table.
Suggest at least four (4) types of business intelligence reports that could help the university in course management, student enrollment, or historical tracking. Support your answer by providing specific business functions that these reports could assist executives of the university.
As an alternative for development of the database, you are considering outsourcing the functions above. Research the Internet and other media sources for vendors who develop registrar and school management database systems.
1. Suggest three (3) vendors that developed and are employing efficient registrar and school management database systems and support your reasons to choose from one (1) of these three (3) vendors.
2. Compare and contrast the key aspects that each system offers. Examples of system aspects include but not limited to cloud based, pricing model, open source, etc.
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Discuss the specific decision-making style of a supervisor you have worked closely with, and discuss whether this supervisor’s style is rational or intuitive.

Module 1 – SLP

Introduction to Decision Making

For the Session Long Project for this class, you will be applying the concepts from the background materials to your own experiences in the workplace. More specifically, you will be examining the decisions and decision-making processes of the leadership of the organization you currently work for or one that you have worked for in the past.

For this first SLP assignment, think about some major and minor decisions made by your managers that you were involved with or impacted by. Review the background material concepts, and think carefully about how you have personally observed some of these concepts. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following issues:

Give some specific examples of tactical, strategic, and operational decisions that you observed in your workplace. Give at least one example of each type of decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into this category with references to the background materials.
Give some specific examples of both programmed and non-programmed decisions that you have observed. Give at least one example of each type of decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into this category with references to the background materials.
Discuss the specific decision-making style of a supervisor you have worked closely with, and discuss whether this supervisor’s style is rational or intuitive. Give specific examples to explain your reasoning as to why you think this supervisor is rational or intuitive.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information.

Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations.

Module 1 – Case

Introduction to Decision Making

Case Assignment

Like many airlines around the world, leading Australian airline Qantas is facing very difficult times in spite of having a 65% market share in its home market of Australia. Due to rising fuel costs and a slow world economy, Qantas has recently been losing money and its CEO, Alan Joyce, has some tough choices to make.

One difficult decision for Joyce is whether or not to sell Qantas’s frequent flyer program. It may seem odd for an airline to sell its frequent flyer program, but Qantas’s program is much more than just an airline reward program. Members of this program can gain points not only by flying on Qantas but also through other means such as shopping at one of Qantas’s corporate partners or using one of their credit cards. Points can be redeemed not only for free flights, but also for products from numerous retailers. Over 10 million Australians belong to this rewards program, almost half of the population.

The frequent flyer program is Qantas’s most valuable asset and a sale of this program would help Qantas get out of its current financial troubles. However, selling the program would also mean allowing another company to have access to Qantas’s most loyal customers, including their business-class and first-class customers. In the long run, there is potential the sale could backfire and prove unwise.

Do some research on CEO Joyce’s current choice of whether or not to sell the frequent flyer program, and also thoroughly review the background materials on intuitive vs. rational decision making, including Rao (2010) and Kourdi (2003). Your assignment will be to apply the background material concepts to Joyce’s current big decision.

Some specific articles on Qantas to get you started:

Ross, K. (2014, Aug 27). Qantas CEO faces tough choices. Wall Street Journal [Proquest]

Ironside, R. (2014, Aug 15). Qantas warned to ground plans to sell frequent flyer program. The Gold Coast Bulletin [Proquest]

Gilder, P. (2014, Mar 29). Loyalty future cloudy. The Gold Coast Bulletin [Proquest]

Australia: Qantas frequent flyer hits 10 million member mark. (2014). MENA Report [Proquest]

Once you have finished reading about Qantas and reviewing the background materials including Rao (2010) and Kourdi (2003), write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

Is the decision whether or not to sell Qantas’s frequent flyer program a strategic, tactical, or operational decision? Is it a programmed or non-programmed decision? Explain your answer using references to Rao (2010) or Kourdi (2003).
Suppose Alan Joyce decides to take a rational approach to the decision whether or not to sell the frequent flyer program. List a step-by-step approach you would recommend and include specifics regarding what kind of information or choices should be considered at each step. Do not just list the steps, give detail at each step and use material both from your research on Qantas and from Rao (2010) or Kourdi (2003) to come up with these steps.
Joyce has been the CEO of Qantas for six years and is an experienced airline executive. Given his experience, do you recommend Joyce use a rational or intuitive approach to this decision? If a CEO who comes from another industry and does not have this airline experience were to make the decision, would you recommend a rational or intuitive approach? Explain your reasoning, and make references to Rao (2010) or Kourdi (2003) as appropriate.

Assignment Expectations

Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information.

Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations.

Analyze how a change in one variable impacts the other variable, such as an increase in marketing budget increasing sales.

Regression analysis can be used to analyze how a change in one variable impacts the other variable, such as an increase in marketing budget increasing sales. Find a unique area of your life where one variable impacts the other variable (and that are both measurable) and do a regression analysis on it. Be sure to include the coefficient of determination as well as the test of significance. Share your results and make any comments as to whether or not there is a possibility of potential problems (causation or extrapolation) with your results

What do your findings say about television news and being a smart (educated) media consumer?

Watch television news coverage of the same story on three different TV networks. Write a communication theory analysis of your findings in a 1,800- to 2,100-word paper. Include how the three different forms of coverage of the same news story are portrayed and how the segments are framed with regard to presentation and bias. Do not analyze the issue or story, but rather the coverage. This means you will need to mention the news story and give a brief background/description of the story, but the main focus will be how the story was covered by the three stations.

What are the points of view of the segments? Are they objective or subjective? How do they demonstrate that point of view? Was there anything that was included that should not have been? What was omitted? (The answers to these questions will require that you provide specific descriptions of what each story contained: was there a reporter on scene? Was there video? Statistics? Maps? How long was the story on each channel?, etc. Essentially, you need to tell what was on the screen in order for your reader to get a picture in their mind of each story.) Remember, to include insight using communication theories

How are various social groups within the news segments represented? (Whom did they interview?)

Are these news segments taken at face value or are they sensationalized for entertainment?

What do your findings say about television news and being a smart (educated) media consumer?

What is the biggest threat in the healthcare industry? Why?

What is the biggest threat in the healthcare industry? Why? Provide a fact-based rationale for your choice.

Does the healthcare industry face different threats now than they it did twenty years ago? What are the new threats?

How would you prepare for the new threat?

How could a healthcare facility prepare itself in the event terrorists began to focus on soft targets such as sporting events, shopping malls, or healthcare facilities?

What is the effect of communication on collaboration with other agencies or organizations dealing with a disaster situation?

Why did it take 9/11 for top law enforcement agencies of the United States to begin sharing information? How important is this sharing of information to fight against terror?

What are the guidelines for establishing effective lines of communication in a disaster scenario?

Differences among Domestic, Foreign, and Alien types of corporations

Analyze and report the importance of each of the following elements in forming a corporation. Remember to include the definitions and page references as part of your report.

Corporation as a Legal Person
Differences among Domestic, Foreign, and Alien types of corporations
Selecting a name for a corporation
Selecting a state to incorporate within
As an example of why a majority of organizations, incorporate these two states, review the Delaware and Nevada Corporation Law.
Establishing a purpose for the corporation
Identifying a registered office with a registered agent

Submission Requirements:

Submit your responses in a minimum of a three-page, double-spaced Microsoft Word document. Please make sure you include the title page and the reference page as part of your submission.
Cite sources in the APA format.
Adhere to Standard English grammar, spelling, and punctuation requirements.
Use 12-point Arial font.

Delaware and Nevada Corporation Law

The State of Delaware is the corporate haven of the United States. More than 50 percent of the publicly traded corporations in America, including 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, are incorporated in Delaware. In total, more than 500,000 business corporations are incorporated in Delaware. But why?

Remember that the state in which a corporation is incorporated determines the law that applies to the corporation: The corporations code of the state of incorporation applies to such things as election of directors, requirements for a merger to occur, laws for fending off corporate raiders, and such. So, even if a corporation does no business in Delaware, it can obtain the benefits of Delaware corporation law by incorporating in Delaware.

On the legislative side, Delaware has enacted the Delaware General Corporation Law. This law is the most advanced corporation law in the country. And, the statute is particularly written to be of benefit to large corporations. For example, the Delaware corporations code provides for the ability of corporations incorporated in Delaware to adopt “poison pills” that make it virtually impossible for another company to take over a Delaware corporation unless the board of directors of the target corporation agrees and removes such poison pills. In addition, the legislature keeps amending the corporation’s code as the demands of big business warrant or need such changes. For instance, the legislature has enacted a state antitakeover statute that makes it legally impossible to take over a Delaware corporation unless the corporation’s directors waive the state’s antitakeover law and agree to be taken over.

On the judicial side, Delaware has a special court—the court of chancery—that hears and decides business cases. This court has been around for over 200 years. In that time, it has interpreted Delaware corporation law favorably to large corporations in such matters as electing corporate boards of directors, eliminating negligence liability of outside directors, upholding the antitakeover provisions of the Delaware Corporation’s code, and such. And there are no emotional juries to worry about. The decisions of the chancery court are made by judges who are experts at deciding corporate law disputes. The court is known for issuing decisions favorable to large corporations as the court applies Delaware corporation law to decide disputes. Appeals from the court of chancery are brought directly to the supreme court of Delaware. Thus, Delaware courts have created a body of precedent of legal decisions that provides more assurance to Delaware corporations in trying to decide whether they will be sued and what the outcome will be if they do get sued.

The state of Delaware makes a substantial sum of money each year on fees charged to corporations incorporated within the state. Delaware is the “business state,” providing advanced corporate laws and an expert judiciary for deciding corporate disputes.

The State of Nevada has become a state of choice for incorporation of corporations. The primary reason for incorporating in Nevada is tax reasons: There are no state taxes on corporate income, franchises, or personal income, and for a Nevada resident, there is no state inheritance, gift, or estate tax. In addition, the Nevada corporations code makes it virtually impossible for creditors to ever reach the assets of shareholders of Nevada corporations. Nevada has also established a business court that has expert judges who hear only corporate and business matters. Nevada has taken a lead from Delaware and established itself as a “business-friendly” state. But, Nevada has aimed to attract smaller corporations, whereas Delaware still remains the choice of large publicly held corporations.

Perform a SWOT analysis for Harley-Davidson.

Business Unit Analysis

Directions: Create a Feasibility Study for Harley-Davidson using the following outline:

Part I: Differentiation Strategies

The analysis of current strategy and competitor analysis you conducted last module impressed the senior vice president. She now needs you to delve into the brands and analyze them by conducting a business unit analysis and presenting your findings in a three-part PowerPoint presentation.

Research the Harley-Davidson (H-D) Web site for each brand, and review the annual report for relevant details of the size, scope, target market, services and amenities, and other salient points of differentiation. Include these details in Part I of your PowerPoint presentation.

From the research and analysis of the business units, identify:

A description of each brand or business unit that provides a clear picture of the brand and its place in the overall portfolio of Harley-Davidson.
The target market of each brand.
How the brands are alike and how they differ.
A preliminary analysis of any gaps that exist in the portfolio that might lead to opportunities to add to the brands.
Your analysis of possible merger/acquisition/joint venture possibilities and what would be achieved or accomplished through the merger/acquisition/joint venture.

Part II: SWOT Analysis

Perform a SWOT analysis for Harley-Davidson and include this information in Part II of your PowerPoint presentation.

Based on the internal analyses of the SWOT analysis, assess the functional areas, resources, capabilities, and strengths H-D possesses. Please be sure to cover the following functional areas in your assessment:
- Marketing: New product development, integrated marketing planning, marketing communications, and building customer loyalty.
- Operations: Quality, service, and consistent execution.
- Human Resources: Hiring, training, developing talent, and performance planning. Avoided lawsuits and bad PR due to its hiring practices. Is ethical in its HR practices.
- Executive Leadership: Industry knowledge and experience, vision about where the industry is heading, and strategy execution.
- Supply Chain Optimization: Strategic sourcing of input, vendor management, integrated IS, and joint forecasting with suppliers.
- Corporate Responsibility and Ethics: Concern for corporate citizenship and the environment. Present any potential ethical concerns as well.
- Safety and Quality: How the motorcycle industry is dealing with safety and quality issues.

Part III: Growth and Profitability Strategies

In addition, the executive board is interested in your ideas about bold strategies for the future. The strategies you recommend will have to contribute to growth and profitability, as outlined in the Annual Report.

You will want to pay special attention to exploring vertical integration, strategic alliances, and the internal growth of new brands entering new geographic markets, and/or additional acquisitions.

Consider the following:

Is Harley-Davidson, Inc., (H-D) competing in the right businesses, given the opportunities and threats present in the external environment? If not, how can H-D realign its diversification strategy to achieve a competitive advantage?
This may include additional diversification to take advantage of opportunities such as further vertical integration.
Is the corporation managing its portfolio in a way that creates synergy among its businesses? If so, what additional businesses should it consider adding to its portfolio?

After you have reviewed the growth and profitability strategies, create a list of possible strategies to present a full range of ideas.

Part III of your presentation should include your complete list—all potential ideas—for the senior vice president. This is your chance to be creative.

Next, rank your ideas from best to worst. To do this, keep in mind several things such as fit with current strategy, resources and capabilities, and difficulty of execution.

For each of your top five ideas, add the following:

Briefly describe the strategy.
Why you picked it as one of the top five.

For each of your top five ideas, add the following:

Briefly describe the strategy.
Why you picked it as one of the top five.

Think about such things as:

Does the strategy build on current competencies and foster horizontal relationships among brands? In other words, what can be leveraged or shared? What are the pros and cons of this strategy?

Your PowerPoint Feasibility Study presentation will also include slides pertaining to the following assessments:

- Part I: Identification of size, scope, target market, services, amenities, and points of differentiation.

- Part II: SWOT analysis that includes marketing, operations, human resources, executive leadership, supply chain optimization, corporate responsibility, ethics, safety, and quality.

Part III: Growth and profitability strategies, including your top five strategic ideas and support.

Submit the PowerPoint Feasibility Study presentation to the senior vice president so that she can review the alternatives and provide you with feedback about your ideas.

Each section should have at least 5-8 slides. Total slides for presentation should be 15-25 (does not include cover slide or reference slide).