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Explore standard management concepts and principles

Assignment 1

Please note that there are two parts (A & B) to assignment 1, both MUST be answered and submitted together. Details are outlined below.

PART A

You are required to research the following question and write a response in essay format of 700 words. Information for the essay should be sourced from at least three (3) peer-reviewed journal articles, plus your text book (i.e. 4 in total). Remember that you must choose scholarly articles (otherwise called ‘peer-reviewed’) from the ECU Library electronic databases. Include in-text and end-text referencing in APA 6th edition style.(See http://www.ecu.edu.au/centres/library-services/workshops-and-training/referencing/related-content/downloads/refguide.pdf). Note: Wikipedia is NOT considered a suitable academic source.

Assignment Question Part A:

When an employee accepts a new job, they may have expectations about their workplace. Often the reality does not match the expectation. This may result in employees not performing well at their job or they may even decide to leave. As a manager, what kind of environment do you need to create where employees can thrive? What are the three (3) main characteristics of a thriving workplace? Support your points/ideas by using academic references.

PAT B

Assignment Question Part B:

Simon Sinek’s video on millennials in the workplace went viral in late 2016. Watch the video and write a 200-word reflective response that summarises the main ideas in one paragraphthat identifies if you agree or disagree with his views and explain why.

Video link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU

Purpose
Completing this assignment will help you gain an understanding of management and the differing views expressed in high quality academic journal articles. Students will be required to familiarise themselves with ECU journal databases to research contemporary management concepts.

Learning outcome/s and Graduate Attributes
Completing this assignment will help you achieve the following learning outcome/s and ECU Graduate Attributes:
– Ability to communicate (Graduate attribute)
– Critical appraisal skills (Graduate attribute)
– Cross cultural and international outlook (Graduate attribute)
– Explore standard management concepts and principles and be able to discuss a number of current issues confronting Australian managers (MAN1100 learning outcome)
– Undertake a detailed analysis of management functions and link with current management practice (MAN1100 learning outcome)
– Examine a number of contemporary issues which question traditional managerial perspectives and recognise that organisational leaders face vast new challenges as the work environment is opened up to scrutiny by a variety of stakeholders (MAN1100 learning outcome)
– Use library based research methods to broaden understanding of relevant management issues (MAN1100 learning outcome)

Assignment Structure-Part B

– Introduction- BRIEF one line introduction
– Body-Main points of your reflective piece
– Conclusion- BRIEF summary of what you have said
– References- are NOT required for this reflective piece

Explain formal and informal structures

Culture

An organization is a collection of people, led by managers, working together to achieve a single purpose. How could leaders provide a culture, which supports these goals?

Structures and Frameworks

Explain formal and informal structures and decipher between traditional and non-traditional frameworks. Describe the characteristics that set functional, divisional, and matrix structures apart.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each design?

Ethics

Differentiate between ethics and ethical behavior.

Why are ethical practices and corporate social responsibility critical issues for contemporary managers?

Provide an example of how stakeholder’s decisions could lead to a company’s image and how customers view that picture, either positively and negatively

Workplace Expectations

How do you know what is expected of you at work?

Discuss five expectations you feel are important for your position and describe who could be negatively affected should you not meeting those expectations.

What are the best ways to communicate your expected performance and what method is used to evaluate your work?

What does excellence look like in your current role?

High-Performing Teams

Adopting high-performing teams to solve problems where direct supervisors and managers recognize service, and quality outcomes could promote quality initiatives.

Using Google Scholar or EBSCO Library find two peer-reviewed articles written in the last three years illustrating researched teams in healthcare, information technology, education, or the general business sector.

Read the articles and describe in your own words the setting of the investigation and characteristics that demonstrated the problem under investigation relating to teams.

Describe the findings of the research and provide a suggestion for future investigation.

NAFTA

What is NAFTA? Under what President was NAFTA formed and why?

What countries are linked? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the trade agreement?

Define reshoring.

Discuss why leaders are deciding to reshore products and what implications could that strategy have on the global economy.

Change

In the lecture, we discussed change agents and those that sabotage an effort for change.

Answer both questions below.

Question A – Describe someone you have worked with past or present that you consider a change agent and provide examples of what contributed to your view.

Question B – Have you encountered a situation where a manager was resistant to change?

Share your perspective regarding a decision where you or a co-worker presented an idea to a manager that was not implemented.

How did the decision make you feel?
Looking back, was the decision justified? Why or why not?
Leadership

Leadership does not begin with the skills for moving others to action. Instead, leadership involves embarking on an “inward and outward journey of self-reflection,” which inspires others to action. (Arkoubi, 2013, p. 3).

Could a new leader “know” how to influence others if a person cannot manage one’s behavior?
What training would you suggest for new leaders?

Organizational structure and its impact

1. Job descriptions are one of the more important things HR can have a role in. They are very critical to the job yet often not done or used well. What are some of the uses of a good job description? Do you or have you ever worked anywhere in the past in a job that had a job description? What was the job and was the effectiveness of the job description for it. One of the things I think can affect the usefulness of a job description is the number of TDR’s. I suggest no less than 10 or more than 15. Less than that and they are probably too general and more than that and they are too long and probably redundant. I think this contradicts the example in the text but in practice I think it works better that way.

2. Consider organizational structure and its impact on how an organization functions.

a. Centralization is the degree to which authority resides at the top of the organizational chart.

b. Departmentalization refers to the degree to which work units are grouped based upon functional similarity or similarity of workflow.

Departmentalization can take the following forms:

a. A functional structure

b. A divisional structure

Cite an advantage of one of the above structures (or conversely a disadvantage) and provide an example of how it can affect the operation of an organization. Also cite any examples you’ve had from your own experience.

3. Do you think job performance evaluations are effective for managers? Why or why not?

Have you ever experienced a company with under-performing employees? If so, how did HRM handle the problem?

As a potential business manager, how would you handle under-performing employees? Would you terminate them right away or give them an opportunity to correct the problem?

Where is the problem in the in the article posted. Is it the inability of doctors to manage their patients or a faulty job design?

In the design and analysis of job description in a hospital, Who should be the overall authority in a medical environment, a management career professional or a medical director?

Explain the decision-making process

Choose a product or service that you connect with as a consumer. In a well-researched essay, explain how the company has used theconsumer decision process modelto effectively market the product or service to you. This essay should detail the strategy based on the model, explain why the strategy was successful for you as a consumer, and judge how the company should move into the future.

 

Be sure to discuss and reference concepts taken from the assigned textbook reading and relevant research. Also explain the decision-making process you experienced as a consumer when choosing this product or service.

 

Your paper should be 2-3 pages in length, well written, and formatted according to APA Style.

Compare and contrast the efforts of the nfl and coach

Read the following articles:

“How the NFL Woos Female Fans”

“Coach’s Curious Pitch to Dudes: Baseball”.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-30/coachs-curious-pitch-to-dudes-baseball

In light of what you are learning in the course,

• Compare and contrast the efforts of the NFL and Coach in reaching out to hitherto under-emphasized market segments.

• Evaluate the respective companies’ prospects for success – with detailed explanations.

• What recommendations would you give to each of the companies for improving their outreach.

Expected length: 4-5 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding cover sheet and references, if any.

How diversity/inclusion impacts our community

Submit a write-up from current media on an issue related to the impact of how diversity/inclusion impacts our community, workplace, and/or economy.  This write-up should not exceed two pages.

Attached is an example of a current event, you should choose a current media (less than a year) on how diversity have impacted. The article could be found from

http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/index.cfm

or

http://www.diversityinc.com/

Link it back to the class. The class talks about how people benefit from diversity and how the minority groups suffer. Glass ceiling, glass walls and everything about how diversity. Its a class about managing diversity so you could link back to that.

Current Event Write Up 3

This article is in regards to “Glaser Organic Farms” creating a hostile work environment in their kitchen. An employee, Debora Velasquez is discriminated by her employers, her employers called names such as “the chocolate one” and “negra”. Debora also included that the managers made comments such as “You Mexicans are ignorant, Mexicans are lazy, and Mexicans are stupid”. After Debora filed a suit, she was then fired because Glaser claims that she is not trusted in the kitchen anymore. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cannot tolerate this therefore, Glaser Organic Farms is sued for discriminating its employees and categorizing its employees in view of their ethnicity, race and skin color.

Such action made by Glaser Organic Farms is violating title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In chapter 3 we learned that the civil rights act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin in employment-related matters. According to the information given by Debora, Glaser is clearly violating this law. The board of directors should take actions immediately. They can resolve this by apologizing to Debora and firing the managers who discriminated her. Managers that do not follow rules and treat their employees unequally should not be in Glaser. They need to make sure that this does not happen anymore because a suit can cost them a lot of money and complication.

Glaser is not the only company who has this kind of discrimination. In Chapter 5, we learned that, “Hispanics who are White have higher incomes and lower unemployment and poverty rates than Black and other-race Hispanics.” (8) This statistics shows that companies in U.S is more willing to hire people who are “Whiter” than others. People like Debora, who are darker in color, will find it difficult to find jobs because of the discrimination. For Debora’s case, she was employed but her employers treated her unequally.

Advantages of standardizing the marketing mix worldwide

Company and details will be messaged

Discuss implementation activities that positively impacted customer satisfaction.

Describe three advantages and three disadvantages of standardizing the marketing mix worldwide.

500 word minimum

Explain the basic characteristics of systems thinking

Using a systems perspective shows that the world is created of interrelated forces. When we think in these terms, we can expand our capabilities to create the results within an organization that is desired — where new patterns are created, new paths are nurtured, and a learning organization is created.

In this assignment, learners will look at the basic characteristics of systems thinking, determine how these characteristics relate to organizations, and discuss components of a learning organization.

Research about how systems thinking is currently used will be essential to the successful completion of this assignment.

General Requirements: Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

. Instructors will be using a grading rubric to grade the assignments. It is recommended that learners review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment in order to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.

. Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.

. This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.

Directions:

Write a 1,000-1,250-word paper that discusses the concept of systems thinking as it is applied in organizations today.

Address the following in your paper:

1. Explain the basic characteristics of systems thinking.

2. Discuss how these characteristics relate to organizations.

3. Discuss the five major components of a learning organization and how they relate to systems thinking.

4. Elaborate as to how systems thinking might expand the capabilities of the work force.

5. Summarize the characteristics of a learning organization versus those of a traditional organization and how each functions.

Explain the main purpose of a quality management plan

1. Explain the main purpose of a quality management plan? What are two metrics – besides those provided in this chapter – that Kristin and her team could use on the Just-In-Time training project? Besides ensuring that classrooms are ready for training, where else might they use a checklist on the project?
2. Explain the main purpose of a staffing management plan? What tool should you use to graphically show total staffing needs for a project? What tool should you use to clarify roles and responsibilities for tasks?
3. What is the difference between an RFP and an RFQ? Give an example of the appropriate use of each. How does procurement planning differ for government projects versus those in private industry?
4. Explain why risk management is often neglected on projects? Why is it important to take the time to identify and rank risks throughout a project’s life.
5. Your company is planning to launch an important project starting January 1, which will last one year. You estimate that you will need one half-time project manager; two full-time business analysts for the first six months; two full-time marketing analysts for the whole years; four full-time business interns for the months of June, July, and August; and one full-time salesperson for the last three months. Use spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Projects resource utilization, to create a stacked-column chart showing a resource histogram for this project, similar to the one shown in Figure 5-8 (page 189 of your textbook). Be sure to include a legend to label the types of resources needed, and use appropriate titles and axis labels. You can use the resource histogram templateon the companion Web site to make this exercise easier.

 

Describe the key elements of an information system

Managed Care Organizations and Information Technology

The most important function of information technology (IT) for the managed care organization (MCO) is to support the business of the MCO. How the IT department aligns with the operational dynamics of the MCO is a vital management consideration. A well-functioning IT department will help the MCO reduce risk (e.g., costs). The IT department should design, implement, and operate the systems that run the MCO. Efficiency is the hallmark of a good system.

Your task as the manager of the MCO is to determine what the IT department in your organization should consist of, what its function will be, and what critical elements will be turned over to the IT department. Complete the following:

• Describe the key elements of an information system for an MCO. What elements are different than for a physician office or group?
• Describe the technology that you think the MCO would need to operate fully.
• Propose a specific electronic health record (EHR) or electronic medical record (EMR) program that is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. Describe the essential functions, costs, and projected savings for the MCO.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of in sourcing versus outsourcing your IT needs, and make a final recommendation based on that evaluation.