Author: chris

Case 5 – Performance Evaluations

John has been working for Unitas Corporation for eight years. He is a mid level manager in the accounting department and has received two promotions during his tenure. Both of his promotions were awarded to him at a pace which would be considered to be on time and in keeping with the promotion patterns of his peers.

Unitas Corporation evaluates its personnel annually. The format for the evaluation includes the awarding of numerical scores which reflect the evaluating official’s interpretation of the employee’s performance in five categories. The scores run from a low of 1.0 to a maximum score of 5.0. The average score is 3.8 and those employees receiving a score below 3.5 in any category are quietly encouraged to seek help.

In addition to the numerical scores the evaluating official has a space to make comments. Few supervisors actually use this space for comments, awarding only numerical scores. It is the numerical scores which are important since these scores are used to compute annual raises and are part of the promotion landscape. Many supervisors see the comment section as a waste of time.

John’s scores for his last six annual evaluations have been in the low to mid 4s. His trend has been upward, and he has every reason to believe that his next promotion will come to him on time. Over the last three months John has noticed that his boss has been just a little cold toward him. His supervisor is very professional having been with Unitas for more than 20 years. John considers him to be a no-nonsense guy who values good performance and treats his employees fairly. John wonders if his boss is cold because he has become dissatisfied with some aspect of John’s performance. But extensive self analysis has revealed no area of his job in which John thinks he is having difficulty. Something is wrong but he can’t put his finger on it.

John is summoned to the supervisor’s office for his annual performance evaluation review. When he reads the review he notes a shocking decline in the numerical score in the category entitled “Effectiveness.”

What is wrong with this picture?

First, synthesize the strategic issues articulated in the Strategic Fit of  Walgreens Assessment from Unit 3 and Strategic Fit With the Industry Environment Assessment from Unit 4. You will compare and contrast strategic issues and assign a nominal ranking of potential impact of the issue on the organization. Defend your synthesis by referring to specific information in the previous analysis reports.

Next, formulate strategic recommendations to address those issues you determine from your synthesis to be critical to the strategic fit between the firm and its industry environment. Recommendations will be explicitly cast using the Strategic Frame Assessment from Unit 1. Specifically, business strategy and competitive advantage recommendations will identify costs, differentiation, and hybrid type. Corporate strategy recommendations will identify diversification, vertical integration, and globalization. A recommendation to address ethical dilemmas will refer to the source of instability—economic, social, political, and technological—that is leading to societal pressure for change to enhance social legitimacy. Assumptions relative to the strategic elements of the firm will serve as a measurement of strategic progress.

Keep in mind the following points:

• Synthesize concerns and opportunities, and articulate them as strategic issues. What are the critical issues? Why are these particular issues critical?
• Evaluate the strategic issues including the degree to which they may impact the strategic position, direction, decisions, and activities of the organization.
• Propose strategies and recommend approaches to mitigate strategic issues that represent ethical dilemmas.
• Propose strategies and recommend approaches for strategic issues that have significant impact on the strategic direction of the firm, or sustained competitive advantage of the organization.

Ensure your report includes an executive summary that references the VP’s expectations communicated in the project kick-off meeting.

• Submit your report in a business format, adhering to the submission requirements below.

Submission Requirements

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• Business formatting:

o   Length: 4–5 double-spaced, typed pages.

o   Font: Times New Roman 12 point.

• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th ed.) style and formatting. Minimum of three resources required.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper, which addresses the following:

• The role of diversity in the development of the arts and how it changed throughout the 20th century in America

• • What was the role of women and their influence on the various arts?
  • What was the role of ethnic minorities and their influence on the various arts?

• The relationship between art and culture and how this developed during the 20th century

• • How did culture influence the arts?
  • How did the arts influence culture?

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

1. Describe the dependence model of power as well as the five sources of power in organizations. Give an example that did or could apply in real life.

 

 

2. Explain how people and work units gain power through social networks. Give an example that did or could apply in real life.

 

 

3. Discuss the four contingencies of power. Give an example that did or could apply in real life.

 

 

4. Explain why communication is important in organizations, and discuss four influences on effective communication encoding and decoding. Give an example that did or could apply in real life.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

 

McShane, S. L., & Von Glinow, M. A. (2013). Organizational behavior (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

In each of the following scenarios, an organization receives a contribution in-kind. Prepare journal entries, as necessary, to give them accounting recognition. For each, tell why you made an entry or why you did not.

1. A local not-for-profit art museum receives advertising for its yearly benefit from radio station WLOU. The airtime would have cost the museum $1,000.
2. Volunteers for ‘‘Breakfast on Bikes,’’ a voluntary health and welfare organization, deliver hot meals to the elderly three times a week. Each of the ten volunteers works about six hours per week. All of the volunteers have permanent jobs with pay averaging $36.10 an hour.
3. Lynn Simms, a local CPA, maintains the books and records of her church. Although her normal billing rate is $120 per hour, she accepts no payment from the church. She works on church matters approximately four hours a week.
4. A construction company allows a not-for-profit community association to use its bulldozer at no cost to clear land for a new baseball park. If the association had to rent the bulldozer it would have incurred costs of $2,400.

Paper Requirements:

• Submit your responses to the following questions in a 1-2 page document in MS Word. Label each question clearly. Please include computations in a table.
• For written answers, please make sure your responses are grammatically correct and free from spelling errors.

It is an Experiential Paper

Write about Alcoholic Anonymous meeting.

You will be an observer.

Story can be made up.

Paper should include your thoughts and feelings prior to, during, and following the AA meetings.

The reflections should include what the experience might be like for someone with a substance abuse problem.

 

Paper should be about 3 pages, double- spaced

ssignment – Evidence Collection

You have been assigned to the Emerel Company embezzlement case by the owner of your CPA firm. The president of Emerel Company has told you that Susan Smith, the assistant bookkeeper, reported the suspected fraud. Susan has been filling in for the head bookkeeper, Mary Chernet, while Mary has been on vacation for a couple of days. The president told you this is the first vacation that Mary has taken in three years. While reconciling the company’s bank statements, Susan has found discrepancies in payees on checks. Susan has found checks written to credit card companies (Emerel does not use credit cards) and large reimbursements to Mary Chenet.

To analyze this case of fraud, you first need to gather some evidence, to give you some background on the company and the fraud suspect, and also to prove the fraud and calculate the fraud loss for Emerel Company.

1. What are the three major categories of evidence?
2. From what sources would you obtain the evidence you need for this case?
3. What evidence would you accumulate to prove this fraud and calculate the fraud loss? Explain this in a substantive manner.

Assignment 3: External and Internal Audit

Auditing is a very broad topic that covers all aspects of an organization. An audit not only examines the accuracy of financial statements but also examines the effectiveness of internal controls as well as the efficiency of overall operations of the organization. To accomplish the objectives of different types of audit within an organization, the audit function is broken down into the role of internal auditor and the external auditor.

In your role as a partner in the CPA firm Dewey, Wright, and Moore, review the following information.

Dewey, Wright, and Moore has just been approached by a new client, AV Imports and Exports, a company that trades goods with various countries. You are in charge of an audit engagement. To determine whether to take on the engagement, you proceed with the overall assessment of risk.

You meet with company management, the board of directors, and the audit committee, and begin communication with the previous audit firm. You also schedule a meeting with the internal auditors to learn more about their role and function within the organization.

In preparation for your scheduled meeting, research the external and internal audit function using your textbook, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet. Complete the following:

Compare the similarities between the responsibilities of the external and internal audit functions.
Compare the differences between the benefits of the two functions.
Make a recommendation to the management team based on your research

Present the comparisons in a chart. Include a 3-5 page report summarizing and explaining the chart as well as outlining how you think Dewey, Wright, and Moore can use the services of the internal auditors as part of the overall audit the firm would provide. Give reasons for your assertions and cite your sources.

Submit your chart and report in Word format. Utilize at least three resources in preparing your report.

Thread: First, review the lecture about the structure of the Republican Party in Virginia as an example. Select 1 of the major parties in your state to study. Because this was already discussed in the presentation, do not base your discussion on the Republican Party of Virginia. If you live in Virginia, you may examine the Democratic Party of Virginia or you may adopt another state and study its party structure. For example, a Virginia resident could study the Republican Party of North Dakota or Missouri, or any other state except Virginia.

Second, locate the website for your political party. Use a search engine to find the address. If you are unsuccessful, contact an elected official of that party and ask for help in locating it. Once you have located the party website, determine how much you can learn from it.

Third, collect the information to answer the following questions. What is the structure of the state party? Does the website contain the legal document governing the party similar to the Party Plan of the Republican Party of Virginia? How does the party choose its state officers? How is the party organized locally? How can an interested person become a member of the local party committee? What other types of information are contained in the website? If the website does not have sufficient information, a phone call to a member of the local party can provide this information. You can obtain the names of local party officials from state party headquarters.

Fourth, organize this information into an essay and submit it. Include the correct citation of the party’s website.

Upgrading a Computer

A department store plans to upgrade its IT infrastructure to support a new order-processing application with rich features. The store currently uses eight stand-alone computers when customers check out. The specifications of these computers are:

Quad core processors
Minimum of one terabyte hard drives
Minimum of 5 GB RAM
Windows XP, Linux, or Mac OSX

The management of the store wants to upgrade four of the computers and use them to process client orders. The initial study done by the management reveals that the computers will perform the following tasks:

Run an order-processing application that requires a multiprocessing operating system. The application will take orders from customers over the Internet, process the orders, and create invoices.
Communicate with customers using e-mail to resolve customer queries.
Store customer data on the local computer. The store will use this data to promote new products.

The department store needs you to upgrade the four computers. Find the necessary equipment from online vendors to upgrade the computers. By Tuesday, October 6, 2015, submit a listing of what features need to be upgraded or added and your justification, an estimated cost report for the upgrades as well as a list of hardware/software needed. These can include external peripheral devices. Make sure to include the list of vendors that you used as references.