Author: chris

 

For this assignment, compare the lives of William Byrd and Olaudah Equiano. These are two very different experiences of early American life: one of relative luxury and ease and the other of bondage and slavery. How are the differences in these lives made manifest? How do these deep differences get articulated in how each writer views the world, his role in it, and his sense of himself as a person? Be sure to use material and examples from your readings and research to support your conclusions.

 

As you reflect on this comparison, respond to the following questions:

 

• How are such radical differences in the conditions of life justified? In other words, how is such dramatic inequality accepted?
• Are such inequalities ever justified? When? Why or why not?
• Though not as dramatic as the inequality between slave and master, there are many ways that inequality remains in American life today. Where are such inequalities? Are they justified? Why or why not?

 

Due Week 4 and worth 200 points

Imagine you are an HR manager, and you have been challenged with the task of reducing expatriate turnover. Think of one or two (1-2) strategies to accomplish this task, and write a one (1) page memo to your boss summarizing your ideas. Persuade him that this is the direction to go.

1. Write a one (1) page memo in which you:
2. Develop two (2) strategies that will help your company reduce expatriate turnover.
3. Summarize both ideas in memo format to present to your boss.
4. Create compelling arguments in favor of your solution to persuade your boss.
5. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:

a. Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.

b. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, your professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Analyze international business strategy to identify human resource requirements and formulate supporting HRM plans that can improve productivity and contribute to the firm’s competitiveness.
• Propose staffing alternatives for foreign operations and address the considerations for the use of expatriates versus localization or third-country nationals.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in global HRM.
• Write clearly and concisely about global HRM using proper writing mechanics.

e-Commerce has evolved from strictly online enterprises such as Amazon.com  to enterprises such as Autozone.com, Bestbuy.com, and so on that are online, on social media, and brick and mortar combined. Select one (1) company and research the technical evolution that has brought its presence to its current technology infrastructure and model. What are the current security considerations? What are future trends in Web-based commerce that your selected company should consider? What are the security considerations that must considered in this future growth?

Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze the Information Technology evolution of e-Commerce up to now, including the techniques used to secure e-Commerce. Describe some of the drawbacks as they relate to security.
2. Determine the future hardware and software trends of e-Commerce and describe where you believe it is going. Analyze how social media such as Facebook and Twitter may fit into the future of secure e-Commerce.
3. Explain how you see the anticipated evolution of the Internet, including updated secure protocols such as IPv6.
4. Recommend what you believe is the most likely migratory path in the evolution of e-Commerce.
5. Include a graphic representation of the proposed future Web-based e-Commerce model that incorporates security using Visio or an equivalent such as Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
6. Use at least four (4) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
• Include charts or diagrams created in Visio or Dia. The completed diagrams / charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted.

Electronic Arts (EA) Paper

In this week’s discussion, you will research the mission and vision statements of different organizations. For this assignment, you are to consider a company’s mission and consider ways its commitment can be applied and implemented. Please complete the following: Submit a one-to-two page paper that addresses the five questions below

 

   Read Case #3: Game Not Over, Not Yet, from Chapter 2 (page 50 in your eTextbook).

Case #3 Game Not Over, Not Yet

Electronics Arts

Although their expertise lies in creating games, it’s definitely serious business for the video game industry. The computer and video game industry has struggled over the last couple of years as game makers looked for new sources of revenues and worked to hold down costs. And nipping at the industry’s heels were companies like Zynga that saw the opportunities and jumped in on the burgeoning social gaming revolution. One company, Electronics Arts (EA), exemplifies the challenges of this industry, where customers are fickle and demanding and competition is intense. As one of the world’s top three interactive entertainment software companies, EA lives and dies by its innovations. Its product lineup includes more than 100 titles such as Battlefield, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Rock Band, Need for Speed, and The Simpsons. The company has created more than 50 best-sellers (each with more than 1 million copies sold) since 1998. In 2011, revenues were almost $3.6 billion—a decrease of almost 2 percent from the previous year—and the company had a net loss of $276 million. The last three years have been quite challenging as the company lowered its sales and profit projections because of changes in the behavior of consumers and retailers. In addition, EA missed the initial social gaming trend, but is now pushing hard to develop digital platforms for many of its popular games. As a result, its Sims Social is the number 2 game on Facebook, behind Zynga’s CityVille.

EA continues to look for ways to prosper. Paranoia has been a critical part of EA’s strategy for success. A top game title takes anywhere from 12 to 36 months to produce and costs between $5 million and $10 million. That’s a significant investment risk riding on the company’s ability to be innovative. John Riccitello (former president and chief operating officer who left the company in 2004 to start a private equity firm but then returned in 2007 as CEO) has guided much of the company’s game design accomplishments. He said, “The forgotten aspect of creativity is discipline.” The hard part, and the part that EA pursues relentlessly, “is identifying the right idea, assembling the best development team, solving the inevitable technical problems, creating a game that people want to play, getting all of the work done on schedule, getting it to market at the right time, and knowing how to generate buzz about it in an increasingly crowded market.” How does EA do it?

It starts with the discipline of understanding ideas. Game designers try to identify the creative center of a game—what they call the “creative x”—so they understand what the game is about. Then, it’s the discipline of understanding the customers by using focus groups to pinpoint desires and likes and dislikes. And it’s the discipline of sharing best practices and technologies through the company’s intranet library. As one employee said, “If somebody develops a better blade of grass in one game, that grass will be in somebody else’s game the next day.” Then, there’s the discipline of developing the next generation of creative leaders. The company’s “emerging leaders” program gives participants firsthand experience in departments outside their own. And there’s the discipline of studying the competition. Employees are encouraged to know the features of competitors’ products. Then, it’s disciplined project management. Riccitello, known for his strict discipline, said, “If you’re working on a game and you miss your deadlines, you won’t be working here very long.” Although the discipline of creativity is important at EA, you can’t overlook the passion of the company’s game designers. Nearly everyone at EA grew up playing games. They love what they do and are inspired to look for new and creative challenges not only for the hard-core gamers, but for the casual gamers as well.

Coulter, M. (2013). Strategic Management in Action. (6th edition.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN: 9781323280157

Discussion Questions

1. Describe EA’s competitive advantage from each of the three perspectives on competitive advantage.
2. Does EA exhibit the critical success factors for the new business context? Explain.
3. Describe the types of resources EA appears to have. Do you think any of these resources might be unique? Explain.
4. What ethical and social responsibility issues might EA face as it develops new games? What would be the best approach for dealing with those issues?
5. What stakeholders might EA have to be concerned with, and how might those stakeholders affect EA’s strategic decisions and actions?

Prior to completing this journal assignment, please read Modules 1and 2 in your textbook, view the “Endless Questions” video, and review any relevant Instructor Guidance. You may want to look specifically at the interactive media tools demonstrating information on theory which are provided in the Section 1.5 (within Module 1) of the textbook.

In a Journal entry of about 500 words, you will be addressing the role of theory and evidence – both scholarly and personal – and how they can be utilized in the classroom or other professional settings.

Begin by reflecting on the benefits and drawbacks of accepting advice from stories told by previous generations (i.e. “I did that with my kids and they turned out just fine.”).  For example, you may have heard a grandparent suggest that you put a bit of whiskey on an infant’s gums to help with teething. Describe your own thoughts about anecdotal advice such as this and explain why it may be true in some cases, but not in others.

 

http://searchcenter.intelecomonline.net/playClipDirect.aspx?id=4870EEC7664070BBE995401AB5C129A14A93F5B254DF367F8A699976D921AB76C066E35BFF9BF306

 

Then, watch the Endless Questions video analyzing child development research and find one additional scholarly source of your choice (see tips and a link to tutorials below) and use it to reflect on and answer the following questions:

• Why is it important to utilize developmental theory to explain children’s development?
• Identify and briefly describe the key points of one of the major developmental theories and why you feel that theory is applicable to child and/or adolescent development.
• What makes scholarly research different from anecdotal evidence (personal experience) in explaining child and adolescent development?  [Hint: Consider the methodology of the article you are reading.]
• Finally, demonstrate the value of continued learning with a concluding reflection on why we should incorporate both personal experience and scholarly research or theory to help support any statements made in this class or any other professional setting.

You are required to utilize at least one (1) additional scholarly source not from this week’s required readings (including, but not limited to, the multimedia in the recommended resources for Week 1).  You must cite all of your sources (including the video embedded above) in proper APA style.  If you are unsure how to create an APA style reference page, please visit the Ashford Writing Center website. Aside from the video embedded in the prompt, you are to find one other scholarly through the Ashford Library website to help support your reflections in PART II.  View this great tutorial provided by the Ashford University Library which will show you how to find scholarly articles and how to assess the scholarly quality of the resource.

• NOTE: As you are completing your searches in the library search engines, check the boxes in the search engines of the library for scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. This allows you to find resources that have been evaluated by a number of experts in the field and do not represent just one person’s opinion.

Research methods vary and different approaches are needed. A magazine editor in a small town would like to include articles on several topics in the next issue. Decide which of the following proposed article topics are suitable for a quantitative or qualitative research, and explain why.

• Coin collections
• Favorite recipes
• Rising home costs
• Best high schools
• Carpools
• Political polls
• Parent teacher participation
• Book fairs

Part 2

An important part of beginning a research project is being able to review literature and analyze the implications of already completed research methods, data, and findings. Therefore, researchers must have a solid foundational mastery of differences between research methods, data collection, and reporting. For this discussion board, discuss the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. Specifically, you should complete the following:

• Give a definition of a hypothesis and a null hypothesis and identify the method of research that uses a hypothesis.
• Discuss what you believe are the key elements of a well-written set of hypotheses. Support your opinion with appropriate peer-reviewed sources other than the textbook.
• Give a definition of a research question or problem and identify the method of research that traditionally uses a research question or problem.
  • Discuss what you believe are the key elements of a well-written research question or problem.
  • Support your opinion with appropriate peer-reviewed sources (other than the textbook).
• Discuss how selecting a sample to study differs between quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Describe 2 data-collection instruments, and determine whether the instrument will be used to collect quantitative or qualitative data.
• Explain how analysis of quantitative data differs from analysis of qualitative data.

Part I

What similarities or differences did you identify among the perspectives? Which do you feel are the most critical and why?

Part II

What affect might the knowledge of curriculum theory have on educators and the way they manage their classrooms?

• Review information about responding to EEOC charges and position statements from US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Employers. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/index.cfm

Based on your readings and additional research, develop a position statement, including the following:

• Explain the values of the company and its policy on race and gender discrimination.
• Summarize and comment on the facts in the EEOC claim.
• Explain the company’s position on the EEOC claim.

 

For this assignment, you are to reflect on this module’s readings and their articulation of the process of bringing two cultures together.

 

Choose one of the historical documents from this module’s reading and discuss the kinds of claims made about the nature of immigration or cultural intermingling in the document. As you prepare your assignment, reflect on the following sorts of questions (not all questions will apply to all of the historical documents):

 

• According to the document, what is the nature of an immigrant?
• What obligations—if any—does a host nation have to those willing to or interested in immigrating?
• What obligations do immigrants have to their new host nation?
• How does a culture or a nation claim legitimate ownership over property, land, or a nation?
• How is this legitimacy challenged?
• Are the goals of “civilizing” or spreading knowledge, religion, or some other value ever justified in terms of “conquering” or assimilating a culture?

After you have reflected on these questions, write a 3–4 page essay (not including title page or references page) that articulates the vision of cultural integration as presented in the historical document. Your essay must demonstrate your understanding and comprehension of the historical document, and should address the problems and dangers, as well as the progress and benefits, that result from cultural intermingling as presented in the historical document. Include an APA formatted title page and reference page.