Author: chris

Review the Terminal Course Objectives, accessed by clicking on the “Course Information” tab at the top of your screen, scrolling down to the “Course Objectives” and then selecting View class objectives. How will accomplishing these objectives support your success in management? What risks or challenges might a manager encounter if they have not mastered these objectives? Explain.

Objectives:

Summarize the role of decision making in business.

Describe common biases 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.

How do courts decide who is an employee and who is an independent contractor? What are the positive and negative issues that are associated with being either an employee or and independent contractor? What are the risks associated with being an independent contractor? Use the Library or other Web resources to support your answer.

This is part one of a two part assignment starting with an introductory look at process design and supply chains.

 

Identify a company with which you are familiar.  This could be your place of employment, a car wash, a yard service company, and so forth.

Create an MS PowerPoint Presentation in which you describe the current state of your selected company’s supply chain and an identified process.

Required Elements:

• Describe the company’s supply chain
• Identify a process internal to the company that you wish to analyze.
• Describe the process internal to the company that you wish to analyze.
• Identify an appropriate design approach for the process you have chosen.
• Create a high-level AS IS process flow chart using an appropriate tool.
• Identify at least one metric to measure the process and its application (how, what, when, and who).
• Use an appropriate tool to collect data for each step of the process.
• PowerPoint includes 4-5 slides with detailed speaker notes.

One afternoon at work, Natalie received a phone call from her daughter’s teacher. It seemed that Brandi had got into trouble, and Natalie would need to meet with Brandi’s teacher and the school principal. Natalie could not imagine what the trouble could be. Brandi was a straight-A student, played soccer, and was part of the school band. She also helped out with chores at home. On the way to the school, Natalie decided she would not jump to conclusions but would hear Brandi’s side of the story. Then, she would let Brandi have a piece of her mind!

 

At school, Natalie met the school principal; Brandi’s teacher; and a crying, red-eyed Brandi. Brandi and two other girls had stolen a pack of cigarettes from a teacher’s purse and were caught smoking in the woods behind the school. Worse, one of the other girls had stolen the teacher’s prescription medication, though Brandi said she did not know anything about that. The principal and teacher said that this was a serious breach of trust and was against school policy. They knew Brandi and were “shocked” that she was involved in this activity. In private consultation with Natalie, they said that Brandi was involved with the wrong crowd, but there was still time to intervene before she developed a pattern of bad behavior.

 

Natalie left the meeting angry with Brandi, but also feeling guilty and responsible. She had been working extra hours and was often busy with her schoolwork. Perhaps she had neglected Brandi or missed important warning signs. She would ground Brandi, but more importantly, she would pay much closer attention to whom she befriended and where she went. Natalie decided she would establish a schedule where she would help the girls’ do their homework.

 

Natalie felt tired. After all the years of guidance and parenting, how could “two stupid tweens” undo all her hard work? She felt she had worked hard teaching Brandi and Jenny how to make good decisions and to know right from wrong. She worried what the next ten years would bring. She pondered the possibilities of other peer influences, alcohol, drugs, and boys.

Research differential association theory and social learning theory as applied to criminal behavior and crime using the textbook, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet. Select two scholarly, peer-reviewed articles for use in this assignment.

 

Based on the scenario, your readings and research, respond to the following:

 

• How could Brandi’s behavior be explained using differential association theory?
• How could Brandi’s behavior be explained using social learning theory?
• What are the strengths and limitations of these two theories as applied to this example?

 

Be sure to support your responses using the selected resources.

 

Write your initial response in 4–6 paragraphs. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Resource: Business Proposal Feedback Checklist.

Choose two business proposals from members of your Learning Team. (attached are the business propopsals)

Provide feedback to your peers on the proposals using the Business Proposal Feedback Checklist. Include detailed, substantive comments. (attached are the feed back checklist.)

Submit the completed checklists with comments to the corresponding students.

Submit a copy of the completed checklists with comments to your facilitator. Your comments are evaluated based on how well they correspond with the economic principles presented in Weeks One through Three.

For your reference, the three weeks objectives are below-

Week-1 Objectives

Choose methods to increase revenue in an organization.

Explain market equilibrating process.

Week-2 Objectives/Competencies
Identify production level to maximize profits.

Explain how to balance fixed and variable costs.

Apply economic cost concepts in making business decisions.

Week-3 Objectives/Competencies

Determine pricing strategy to meet organizational goals.

Determine ways to create non price barriers to entry based on market structure.

Determine ways to increase product differentiation based on market structure.

Determine ways to reduce costs for an organization.

End-Paper:

Feedback for both the proposals in 2 business feedback checklist docments.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 600–800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

You spent the last week reflecting on both your appreciation of Deborah’s praise and the success of the organization, and then had a long weekend with your family. As you walk in to work on Monday, all you can think about is how excited you are about the future of the company.

You sit down at your desk and get started on updating the project plan and preparing the marketing proposal for Deborah when there is a knock at your door. When you call for the person to come in, Anna, the financial analyst, enters.

“Good morning,” she says. You are surprised to see that she looks nervous because Anna usually has a smile on her face.

“Hi, Anna. Is everything okay?” you ask.

“Well,” Anna begins, “I just finished our quarterly report. Our profit margins have dropped by 2% this quarter.”

After Anna leaves to send her report to Deborah, you start to wonder how you and your team can help fix this. Is a global strategy the answer, or should the company continue to focus on the domestic market?

You call a project team meeting to learn about the progress of their research.

Tiffany, one of your team members, begins the discussion. “I think we need to look at some of the internal factors,” she says. “We know what our capabilities are on the domestic front, but what about in the global market? We have a fairly strong market presence here in higher-end markets, but how does that translate globally?”

“Well, I think we need to identify a benchmark to give us some more information to make a better decision,” you explain. Answer the following:

• What is your benchmark?
• Did it benefit from global expansion? If so, how? If not, why?
• Did this benefit or hinder the benchmark’s domestic market share? Explain.
• Were there risks associated with the globalization?
• How were these risks minimized?

Details

You have been employed as a law enforcement officer for over 5 years after graduating from the American Intercontinental University online campus. You served as a patrolman for the first 3 years, and since you graduated from AIU, the police chief asked you to head up the training department, which includes the police academy and annual training of the police officers. The police chief has asked you to give a class to every police officer concerning the following listed topics, but first, he wants to know your views on these topics and questions, so he has asked you to write a paper of 2–3 pages on these topics and questions.

The development of policing in America was greatly influenced by the developments of the London Metropolitan Police under the leadership of Robert Peel. During his tenure with the department, Robert Peel developed what he termed the principles of policing. Many of the original principles of policing that he developed are still important in contemporary policing. The following are two of these principles (A History of the Nine Principles of Policing, n.d.):

 

• No quality is more indispensable to a policeman than a perfect command of temper; a quiet, determined manner has more effect than violent action.
• The securing and training of proper persons is at the root of efficiency.

Now, the police chief would like for you to write a paper of 2–3 pages concerning the above listed two principles and how they pertain to the following listed questions:

• Why is the command of temper important to the demeanor of the typical police officer? What can be achieved with it, and what can happen without it?
• Has enough been done in law enforcement to develop the proper demeanor of law enforcement officers? Can you find research that suggests that demeanor training is a core part of law enforcement training, or is demeanor training needed to be included in law enforcement training?
• If you were the chief of police of a local law enforcement organization with the opportunity to establish guidelines on developing the demeanor of law enforcement officers, what methods would you utilize? The police chief is really interested in hearing your answers to these questions and principles as they are applied to each other. How would you know that the officers were developing in this area, and what would your metrics be?
• The selection and training of personnel is perhaps one of the most important areas of responsibility that a department has for its employees. Describe the areas in which you feel your officers would benefit the most from training, and explain briefly why you chose those areas of training.

 

Please note that you are required to support your views by citing your sources in all assignments. Even if the question asks for your opinion, you are still expected to support your opinion with references to published works and other materials.

In this assignment, you will investigate the biotic and abiotic structure and function of an ecosystem. You will also investigate how ecosystems recover from disturbance naturally and through human restoration.

Choose 1 of the following ecosystems:

• Tropical rainforest
• Grassland
• Coral reef
• Estuary
• Desert

You will write an APA-style research 3 page paper about your choice of ecosystem, including the following elements:

• Describe where this type of ecosystem might be located. Name 1 specific example.
• Describe the structure of the ecosystem.
  • List at least 3 specific examples of both abiotic components and biotic components for the ecosystem type selected.
• Describe the function of the ecosystem
  • In your own words, explain or define biogeochemical cycle.
  • Describe the steps in the carbon cycle as an example of one biogeochemical cycle.
• Describe disturbance and recovery
  • Describe 1 natural and 1 human-caused disturbance to the ecosystem that you have chosen.
  • Describe the damage to the ecosystem for each example, including how the abiotic and biotic characteristics of the ecosystem changed.
• Provide 2 examples of natural resources provided by the ecosystem that you have selected.
  • How can these be sustained into the future?
  • How can humans act as good stewards to assist ecosystem recovery? Provide 1 example specific to the ecosystem that you have chosen.

The Challenger disaster is a classic case study for observing the political frame and the dynamics that create a potentially negative outcome. Sometimes data and other facts are overlooked in the decision-making process to instead deal with political pressures of other groups and/or coalitions. The general public has heard that the root cause of the space Challenger was due to O-ring failure. In the case study, you may have noticed the actual root cause of the Challenger disaster—the push for approval from a “managerial perspective.”

Review this week’s resources, including the Challenger case study in Chapter 7 of the course text, Reframing Organizations. After reading the case on the Challenger disaster, develop your initial post. (Note: Use Exhibit 6.1, “Organizations and Modes of Political Rule,” on p. 153 in the course text,Images of Organization.)

Post a response to the following:

• Identify and explain the modes of political influences in the U.S. space shuttle Challengercase study (Chapter 9 in Bolman & Deal).
• Describe the impact of inter-organizational politics between NASA and Thiokol.
• Describe the impact to the ecosystem that NASA was operating in at the time of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger disaster.
• Explain how you think managers could have prevented the failure of the space shuttleChallenger disaster. Do not fall for the hindsight fallacy that you could have known then what you know now. Rather, think about the circumstances and conditions that existed at the time of the decision and make recommendations that could have mitigated the outcome that would make sense in the context of the actual decision.

Note: Provide three academic resources in APA style and citation format to support your topic.

 

 

Resources

 

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• Chapter 9, “Power, Conflict, and Coalition” (pp. 185–204)
• Chapter 10, “The Manager as Politician” (pp. 205–223)

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

• Chapter 6, “Interests, Conflict, and Power: Organizations as Political Systems” (pp. 149–206)
  • Exhibit 6.1, “Organizations and Modes of Political Rule” (p. 153)

1. I’m sure we’ve all seen good and bad PowerPoint presentations, and while it is incredibly user friendly to create a presentation, the program won’t tell you when something isn’t effective in practice. This week, we’re going to talk about what makes a good presentation and what are some of the don’ts of PowerPoint. To begin, what is the purpose of using visuals aids?
2. The words we choose when we communicate with others can have a profound impact whether or not our communication is successful. Often, we fail to consider the importance of our word choice until it is too late and our communication has failed. Think of a time when the words you selected contributed to your miscommunication with another person. How did your word choice impact the miscommunication? What could you have done differently?
3. Let’s start out the week discussing the differences between informative and persuasive speaking.  What are the goals of an informative speech?  What are the goals of a persuasive speech?
4. We can listen at a rate at least three times faster than the rate that we can speak. What impact does this have on communication?