Author: chris

This assignment focuses on how the management practices of planning, leading, organizing, staffing, and controlling are implemented in your workplace. If you are not currently working, you may use a previous employer. In this assignment, you must:

• Analyze the application of these management concepts to your place of work; the paper will not simply be a report on the five functions in general.
• Identify specific examples and explain of how each applies to the functions practiced in your place of work.

Be sure to integrate vocabulary learned throughout this course and citations from the text to support your analysis. The paper should be five to six pages in length and formatted according APA style guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Writing the Final Paper

The Final Paper:

1. Must be five to six double-spaced pages in length, excluding the title and reference pages, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
2. Must include a title page with the following:
   1. Title of paper
   2. Student’s name
   3. Course name and number
   4. Instructor’s name
   5. Date submitted
3. Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
4. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
6. Must use at least five scholarly sources, including a minimum of three from the Ashford University Library, in addition to the course textbook.
7. Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
8. Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Part 1:  Compare the attitude toward the Native Americans revealed by at least three of the following authors: Mary Rowlandson, John Smith, Cotton Mather and St. John de Crevecoeur. You might consider the concept of the good Indian, the bad Indian, and the noble savage as part of your answer. Refer to specific native people to illustrate your response. Of these authors, who do you believe expresses the truest description of the native peoples? Contrast how these writings would be received today.

Part II:  Readers have been interested in de Crevecoeur’s writings as a documentation of life in America at that time and as an idea of what being an American is all about. More recently, readers have also considered his work an examination of the whole human experience. Discuss your thoughts and reactions to de Crevecoeur’s “Letters from an American Farmer” on any element that speaks to you and, also, specifically in terms of what it meant, and means today, to be an American.

 

1. Explain how the dynamic and evolving definition of giftedness changed the ways in which students are identified and served.

 

2. Give examples of provisions that should, and can be, made to accurately identify students who are from racially, culturally, and economically different groups or who have disabilities.

 

3. What are some strategies for differentiating curriculum for gifted and talented students? What are your thoughts on these?

 

4. What are some challenges that teachers of gifted children face?

Select a current product with which you are familiar, and pitch a new Integrated Marketing Communication plan (IMC) to your client.

 

Create a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation of 8-10 slides that includes the following components:

• Identify any considerations you will need to employ to build and maintain the brand and customer loyalty.
• Create a print ad and a video broadcast for the product featuring your new strategy (Youtube TM, video, or power point storyboard is acceptable).

In the online lectures in Module 3 and your textbook readings (“Training and Development”, Leadership”, and “Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and Job Involvement”) you learned about the importance of training your employees.  However, training is only effective when employees can retain the information and incorporate what they learn to improve their job performance.

You have just learned that your company is looking for ways to cut back expenses.  One of the cost cutting measures being considered is to terminate the training department, as the company considers this an expense and they do not believe training is contributing to the profitability of the company.  As the head of the training department it is your job to defend the value of the department.  You realize that well trained employees perform their jobs more efficiently and consequently can contribute to higher productivity and profits for the company. One way to show the value of training is to have tools that will allow a manager to track the performance of an employee both before and after they have received training.

1. 1. Report

      Write a report that will be shared with senior management on why training is a very important part of the company’s overall financial success.  Discuss the advantages of having well-trained employees.

 

1. Evaluation Tool

   Using what you have learned about transfer training and the evaluation of training programs create an evaluation tool which can be used to evaluate how effective any given employee training program is in terms of:

• • Increasing the level of transfer of knowledge (knowledge retention)
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of the skill performance in the job performance improvement
  • Include common attributes in your evaluation tool which could be applicable to most employees at the organization such as: employees showing concern for saving the company money or consistently turning in error free work.  Your training tool should contain a minimum of 10 evaluation criteria.

Your training evaluation tool must be included with your report defending the value of the training department.  You know that your report will be shared with senior level managers and eventually to the board of directors.  However, you are uncertain whether or not you will be allowed to present your work at a later time or in a different manner.  Therefore it is important that your report is well written and professional.

Report Details

The report should be 5-7 pages in length and include:

• Executive Summary highlighting all the factors in the scenario.
• Justification of the importance of retaining the training department in the company and explanation of how the training department is important to the overall success of the company.
• Training Evaluation Tool to evaluate knowledge retention and job performance improvement (10 criteria minimum).
• Explanation of how the evaluation tool will be implemented.
• Describe how the evaluation tool will help evaluate the level of transfer of knowledge and skill performance for current training programs as well as, monitor and improve planning for future training effectiveness.
• Summary and conclusion of tool’s effectiveness.

The DiVito Bakery has now re-opened, incorporating the marketing strategy changes as the result of your research. As the marketing consultant for the DiVito Bakery you are now recommending a Performance Tracking Proposal, instituted to monitor performance and identify potential areas of under-performance.

The DiVito Brothers agree with your recommendation to institute a tracking program, and have asked you to prepare a Performance Tracking Proposal. In your proposal you need to address:

• Background and Objectives of the new marketing strategy.
• Key marketing metrics that need to be measured and a rationale for why these metrics are important.
• Establish objectives (numerical goals) for each of the key marketing metrics you have identified.
• Propose a methodology for collecting the data, including:
  • How the data will be collected (in-person, telephone, mail, online, other)
  • Recommended sample sizes by target group, including which consumer segments need to be interviewed (customers, non-customers, ethnic groups)
• Timing: How soon after the strategy has been implemented should we do the tracking research? How soon should we go back after the initial research? Why?

As the human resources manager, you are now ready to complete your diversity training manual to be used for training and sensitizing your employees on diversity issues. This final section will cover actual legislation. You would like your employees to not only be aware of issues dealing with discrimination that may not be addressed in legislation (the moral component) but to be knowledgeable of the seriousness of the discriminatory practices that have been made into law.

Affirmative Action is one of the most contentious issues; its intent and the discriminatory result of applying it in practice has become a major issue in today’s workforce.

Using this Web site (or any others you find), write a paper of 3-4 pages that will summarize the following points and become part of the training manual:

• What is Affirmative Action?
• What was the initial intent of Affirmative-Action legislation?
• What did the landmark Bakke v. Regents case conclude? Click here to read the case.
• What was the basis for the conclusion?
• What are the positive and negative results of Affirmative Action legislation?
• In your evaluation, is Affirmative Action legislation is still appropriate?

Inflation is a measure of how prices have changed over time.  If prices are changing due to inflation, each dollar spent will buy less.

Questions:

1.  What is inflation? What are the causes of inflation?  Is inflation desirable and what can be done to control inflation in a market economy?
2. What is the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?  How has the CPI behaved since the year 2000?  What have been the causes of these changes? In your response, include a graph of the CPI for this period and cite your source.
3. What is the Producer Price Index (PPI)?  How has the PPI behaved since the year 2000?  What have been the causes of these changes? In your response, include a graph of the PPI for this period and cite your source.
4. What is the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE)?  How has the Survey behaved since the year 2000?  What have been the causes of these changes? In your response, include a graph of the CE for this period and cite your source.
5. What do the measures above tell us about consumer behavior?  Have incomes changed enough to offset the inflation since 2000?  What can we predict about future inflation?
6. What are the implications of these measures for government economic policies?

Visit the U.S. Government Web site, TradeStats Express: http://tse.export.gov/TSE/TSEReports.aspx?DATA=NTD

1. Find National Trade Data.
2. Determine the trade balance between the U.S. and China for the most recent five year period.
3. Illustrate the trend over this period with a graph of the data.

Based on the data provided, create a report in Microsoft Word discussing the trade balance between China and the U.S. for the most recent five year period. In your discussion, include an analysis of the effect of such trade balance on the economies of China and the U.S., both individually and comparatively. Justify your discussion and analysis by using appropriate examples and references.  Include in your report an analysis of the impact on the U.S. economy of the situation where China holds such a large amount of the U.S. debt.

Assignment Objective–The goal is to provide an assignment that will allow the student and instructor to explore various situations in the business environment related to ethics. Through answering the assigned questions along with discussion in class, the student should develop a good understanding of the role of ethics in the business environment. APA format and 2-4 pages.

Assignment: Provide typed answers to the following questions and be prepared to discuss in class.

1. Define ethics–Include the reference for your definition.

2. (a) What is insider trading? (b) In your opinion, is it ethical? Explain (c) Is it legal? explain

3. (a) What caused Enron’s collapse? (b) Did management act in an ethical manner?
(c) Were there any potential (or real) ethical issues related to Arthur Andersen’s role as Enron’s auditor and another part of Andersen providing Information Technology Consulting?

4. (a) What accounting practice/standard/rule was not followed at WorldCom? (b) An employee in the accounting organization warned management of the implications/dangers of not following appropriate accounting standards. He was fired. Was it ethical, in your opinion, to fire the employee? Explain your thoughts/answer.

5. Some companies have “Codes or Standards of Conduct” which are published and employees are expected to abide by the standards in conducting company business.
The objective is to protect both the company and the individual. A private phone number along with a promise of anonymity is provided. Employees are given the opportunity to call the number if they feel they are asked to do something contrary to the “code” or are convinced someone else might be. (a) Is this private number an ethical procedure on the part of the company? Please explain your answer.
(b) Would it be ethical for you to call the number if you were found in a situation that warranted a call? What if it were your boss that you were concerned about—how would you handle the situation??

6. During the recent financial crisis related to housing/loans/various financial instruments, it was found that individuals were provided a low, introductory interest rate that would reset at a much higher rate in a future period. (a) Was it ethical to provide a loan to an individual when it was unlikely they would be unable to continue paying after the interest rate increased? Please explain. (b) Was it ethical for an individual to take the loan if in their mind it was highly likely that they would not be able to pay the loan when the rate increased? Please explain.