Day: May 14, 2018

The employee and employer relationship dynamic differs depending on what the organisation’s strategic goals are and also, to some extent, in what type of industry they operate in. It seems that the modern approach to employee relationships leans heavily on Unitarism, which Truss et al (2012: 15) describe as having a common purpose among employees and employers, with emphasis on employee commitment and loyalty. This ideology sees ‘the employment relationship based on management prerogative, valuing labour individually’ (Beardwell and Claydon (2010: 689).

In a company that uses a unitary approach, HR may use individualistic options such as a reward strategy and performance management in order to achieve specific organisational goals. For example, an electrical company I once worked for saw a change in the market and decided to diversify into solar powered technology. To gain a greater market share, sales bonuses on solar products were placed at a premium to encourage staff to find new customers. The company also sent sales staff and technicians on courses so that they could learn about the new products. For this organisation, the entire team understood the need for diversification and were happy to work hard. Training and reward were the key to getting staff motivated and committed to achieving.

The pluralistic approach is defined by Beardwell and Claydon (2010: 687) as ‘recognising inequality between capital and labour where each of the interest groups has some conflicting and some common aims’. This approach can be seen commonly these days in the public sector, where many employees are at the mercy of cost-saving organisational strategies, leaving them with no pay increases, training opportunities or career paths. Employee engagement is fraught with conflict as unpopular choices are deployed to align with strategy.

Do you have any examples of how a pluralistic approach is helping to achieve organisational strategy in the private sector?

There are two main perspectives when approaching employee relationships within organisations: the unitary perspective and the pluralist perspective. The pluralistic perspective fosters the belief that organisational, employee and employer goals cannot be fully aligned as stakeholders possess “diverse sets of beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours” (Giles 1989: 131) and therefore, conflict will arise and solutions will be found. In the pluralistic perspective, there is a clearer division within organisational hierarchy and clearly defined departments, roles, responsibilities and boundaries with continued negotiation needed between stakeholders to ensure that employees needs are fulfilled while the employer is not giving more than they feel they should.

The unitary perspective differs in that it combines the goals of both the employee and the employer in order to encourage loyalty to the organisation and foster a partnership between these two key stakeholders. A unitary organisation may support employees in various goals whether that is personal by providing flexible working, financial through offering competitive rates of pay, or professional by providing employees with the opportunity to advance. This approach is beneficial in fostering a cooperative and communicative environment where stakeholders at all levels feel they have an investment in the organisation and, therefore, should contribute towards organisational success.

I feel that my experience of employer relationships leans more towards the unitary perspective as I feel the balance of power has always leaned more towards the employer than the employee in organisations I have worked within. However, I do not feel this necessarily creates a negative environment as I do not believe that it is possible to fully avoid conflict in the workplace.

Is it possible to ever have a fully unitary approach to an organisation while still maintaining a structural hierarchy within an organisation? Is a structural hierarchy necessary in a fully cooperative unitary organisation?

Introduction: It is April and you have recently been hired as the manager of Springvale Seaside Caramel Company in Springvale, Maine. You have been asked to improve profitability. The company got its name from a propriety caramel truffle first sold in a coffee shop also owned by the Prescott family. Note: Please use Excel for all calculations.

Analysis of Pricing: You manage The Springvale Seaside Caramel Company which makes a chocolate – caramel truffle for sale to gift shops from Cape Cod to Mount Desert Island near Bar Harbor Maine. The company sells individually wrapped candies in boxes of 50 for $81.00 each. The candies retail for $3.99 for an individual piece and sales have been strong. The owners of the Seaside would like to increase its sales and profits. They know that, if price is lowered, they will generate more sales. Sales are typically steady at 35,000 boxes per month from May through October. Last year they sold 35,000 boxes in May. So they run an experiment. Price is lowered to $73.00 per box in May of this year and the number of deliveries increases to 37,000.
What is the Price Elasticity of Demand?
Is elasticity elastic, inelastic or neither?
What does this mean and why does it matter?
Will Revenues increase or decrease as a result of the price cut? By How much?
You calculate that the fixed costs for the Springvale Seaside Caramel are $25,000 per month and each box costs $48 for the labor, candy, packaging and shipping. Will profits go up or down as a result of the price cut? By How much? (Profits are revenue minus all costs. )
Shaun Prescott, the 19 year old son of the owner, says that there wasn’t enough time in the experiment. He estimates that in the second month, June, Seaside Caramel will sell 40,000 boxes at $73.00 per box. Please answer the following assuming that Shaun is correct. You want to get an idea of what will happen to profits before you commit to an action and make a projection. If profits are projected to go up assuming that Shaun is correct, then you will keep the current price of $73.00 during June. If the profits are projected to go down, you plan to return to $81 per box.
What would be the Price Elasticity of Demand compared to a month ago if Shaun is correct?
Is elasticity elastic, inelastic or neither?
What does this mean and why does it matter?
Will Revenues increase or decrease as a result of the price cut to $73.00 at 40,000 boxes? By How much?
You calculate that the fixed costs for the Seaside Caramel are still $25,000 per month and each box costs $48.00. Make a projection of revenues, costs and profits for June. Will profits go up or down as a result of the price cut if Springvale Seaside Caramel sells 40,000 boxes? By How much?
The Springvale Seaside owners see the change in profits from the price decrease in May and the projection for June. They decide to go back to a price of $81.00 and have sales of 35,000 boxes in June. The May production required staff to work 2 weekends and there were many complaints. No one wanted to work weekends during vacation season in Maine and there was no room to expand production. The owners were willing to add a second location that would permit greater production if profits justified. They decide that they are only willing to manage enough production to support 35,000 deliveries at a price of $81.00. However, if they raised price to $90.00 per box for July, they would be willing to hire additional staff, lease more space across town and produce 58,000 boxes.
Calculate the Elasticity of Supply. Is it elastic or inelastic?
How many deliveries will Seaside have at a price of $90.00? Hint: since the product is perishable, you will only want to produce what customers will buy. Use the original the elasticity of demand calculated in #1 above.
What will be the Revenue?
What will be the Profit?
Should Springvale Seaside raise the price to $90.00? Why or why not?

Research the history of the United States Social Security program, based on the Social Security Act of 1935.  Explain the history of the program, the original design of the program and the expansion of the program.  Discuss the financial concerns of the program and the program amendments of 1983 based on the recommendation of the National Commission on Social Security Reform.  Discuss your view of future changes that could be implemented to maintain the structure and stability of the program.

The paper must be double-spaced, paginated, have one-inch margins, and be in Times New Roman 12-point font. The form and style of the paper must follow the Sixth Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). Papers shall include: 1) Cover Page 2) Table of Contents 3) Abstract 4) Body of the Paper (analysis), to include a proper introduction and conclusion 5) Reference page. Be sure to spell check all written material. Please save the document in Microsoft Office Word format. The paper must be submitted in MyCourses Learning software (drop box), not via email. Please remember, the paper must have at least 5 FULL pages of analysis (body of the paper). Failure to have at least 5 FULL pages of analysis will result in a grade that is not passing (partial pages do not count as a full page). All other sections of the paper do not count toward the length requirement.

FINALLY, IF YOUR PAPER CONTAINS ANY CUT AND PASTE, EVEN IF CITED, YOU WILL RECEIVE A GRADE OF “F” AS THIS IS PLAGIARISM ACCORDING TO COLLEGE POLICY.  ANY USE OF A SOURCE MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND PROPERLY CITED IN APA FORMAT.  IN ADDITION, NO QUOTES OF ANY KIND ARE PERMITTED IN THE SUBMISSION

Project Schedule
Due Week 10 and worth 150 points

This assignment consists of two (2) parts: a project schedule, and a written response. You must submit both parts as separate files for the completion of this assignment. Label each file name according to the part of the assignment it is written for.

Note.( It is to be done on groups that helps troubled kids).

Part A: Project Schedule
(Submit as one [1] Microsoft Project file)

1. In Assignment 2, you developed a project plan. Now, using the information from your project proposal, create a multi-level work breakdown structure (WBS) and detailed project schedule.
   Your project must include the following criteria:
   • The project must consist of at least twenty-five (25) tasks.
   • Each task must contain a start date, a finish date, and have main staffing and non-staffing resources assigned.
   • Assume that your work activities are completed during normal weekdays (no weekend work) under normal conditions (8 hours per day).
   • In terms of holidays, you can assume no work will be done the following days: New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Good Friday, Good Monday, Friday before Memorial Day, Memorial Day, the business day before Independence Day, Independence Day, the Friday before Labor Day, Labor Day, the day before Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving), the business day before Christmas, Christmas Day, the business day after Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve.

Part B: Written Response
(Submit as a Microsoft Word file)

Write a one to two (1-2) page response in which you:

1. Analyze your project in terms of project completion, critical path, and slack / float. Specifically, be sure to answer the following:
   • When will the project be completed?
   • What is the critical path for the project?
   • How much slack / float is in your project? What activities have the greatest slack / float?
2. Summarize the recommendations or improvements you would make to your project schedule. Specifically, be sure to answer the following:
   • Identify the top three (3) activities that you believe could impact the project completion date.
   • What additional activities would you add to this project to make it more complete, from a project management viewpoint?
3. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
   • Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
   • 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 is not included in the required page length.

Learning Outcomes: 

• Evaluate the relative merits of a variety of human resources interventions such as organizational development, succession and workforce planning, strategic staffing, diversity training, cultural change, and rewards and recognition redesign.
• Demonstrate an understanding of all the HR disciplines and how they contribute to overall organizational effectiveness.
• Apply acquired human resources knowledge to resolve business and organizational issues.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between strategic HR initiatives and an organization’s global competitiveness.
• Demonstrate how to design, develop, and implement effective HR policies and programs.

 

Throughout the course, you will be tasked with selecting, researching, and writing a paper on the Human Resource Management (HRM) topic of your choice. You are encouraged to select a topic you find interesting or one that is relevant to your current or future career. I find that it is generally more enjoyable and thus successful when you focus on research for a topic you personally find interesting and relevant to you. There are three assignments throughout the following weeks to help you complete the course topic paper. They are:

 

• Step 1: Topic Proposal (Due this week)
• Step 2: Topic Paper Outline (Due following weeks)
• Step 3: Topic Paper (Due following weeks)

 

For this assignment, in a word document of your choice, such as Microsoft Word, you will draft a proposal for the topic you would like to further research. The paper will be on a topic of your choice, related to Human Resource Management. As a suggestion, peruse the text for a topic that is of interest to you, or that you want to more fully understand.

 

The proposal should be about 2-3 pages in length (NOT including title and reference pages),AND highlight the reason for the topic selected, as well as the scope and purpose of the paper. As a minimum, you should use, cite, and reference at least SIX scholarly references for the paper. You will receive feedback on your proposal to help you focus in on an appropriate topic and ensure you are not taking on a focus area that is too broad or narrow in scope before moving on to the outline stage of the assignment. Your proposal should follow all APA formatting guidelines and should also demonstrate college-level writing. Please make sure to READ the rubric (SEE ATTACHMENT) carefully and thoroughly. 

The police and citizens often have different viewpoints about community policing. Community policing can be very labor intensive and the police of often have numerous different types of pressure on them from a variety of locations within the jurisdiction.   For this week’s assignment you are to evaluate how a police agency should deal with the multitude of different types of requests for service that they have and still be able to engage in a robust community-policing effort. Assess how a well-functioning community-oriented policing program can lessen the stress on law enforcement manpower. Determine how the police and citizen groups can effectively communicate with each other.  Write a 2 page APA style paper.  Only the body of the paper will count toward the word requirement (title page and references are in addition to the 2 pages)  In your paper, cite at least 2-3 references using the APA style guide format for in-text citation.

Assignment 2: LASA 1 Assignment—The Leader as a Strategist Report

For this assignment, you will choose an organization to analyze. This organization can be one you are personally familiar with, or one you have observed to be an effective organization, You now become a newly appointed senior leader in that organization.

As a new leader, you must prepare a report for the CEO that assesses the organization’s overall alignment between its vision, mission, values, and strategy. This report should consist of the following sections:

1. An analysis of the strategic cascade of the organization

This includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market position. Use the framework implied in Michael Porter’s (1997) article “What is Strategy.” When describing the business strategy of your organization, consider the following questions:

• What is the target market (target customer)?
• What is your organization’s value proposition (How does it deliver value that satisfies the target’s wants and needs?)?
• How is your product or service positioned in the market (What specific features and attributes define the product/service and how is its value reflected in its pricing, distribution, marketing communications, etc.?)?
• How is your organization sustainably different from your competitors (What is the source of uniqueness and how sustainable is it from being diminished by competitors?)?

2. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategy planning tool that examines both internal and external environments for factors and trends that should shape planning and operations over the next five years. Environmental factors internal to the company are classified as strengths (to be leveraged) or weaknesses (to be mitigated), while external factors are classified as either opportunities (to be pursued) or threats (to be monitored and responded to).

Some primer questions for the SWOT analysis include the following:

Strengths

• What advantages does your organization have?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others cannot?
• What do people in your market see as your strengths?
• What factors mean that you “get the sale”?
• What is your organization’s unique selling proposition (USP)?

Weaknesses

• What aspects of your product or service could you improve?
• What market segments or competitive areas should you avoid?
• What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
• What factors can make you lose sales?

Opportunities

• What good opportunities can you spot?
• What interesting trends are you aware of?

Useful opportunities can come from such things as the following:

o Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale

o Changes in government policy related to your field

o Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on

o Local events

Threats

• What obstacles do you face?
• What are your competitors doing?
• Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products, or services changing?
• Is changing technology threatening your position?
• Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
• Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

3. A summary of the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements of the organization architecture that influence worker behavior.

 

Include the following characteristics when analyzing the internal environment:

• Structure: This includes the ways the organization assigns formal roles and responsibilities, decision-making authority, expertise and skills, and work tasks. Think of the organization chart and how its implied structure directs the decision making, resource allocation, and workflow of the organization. Is it consistent with the strategy?
• Systems: This comprises the information flows that coordinate activities between groups and across the organization structure while helping direct worker behavior, including performance management, financial management, operating, forecasting and planning, and other regulating mechanisms. How do these systems help align workers and their actions with the strategy?
• Culture: This consists of the unwritten rules and norms that govern worker behavior and help coordinate the activities across structural boundaries. Is the organization culture an enabler or impediment to the corporate strategy? What specific behaviors embedded in the culture support the strategy? What specific behaviors block the strategy?

4. A synthesis of the information evaluating the ability of the organization to implement the strategy using Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices (for example, modeling the way) as a framework.

 

Include answers to the following:

• Company Culture

o Describe the values and culture of your organization.

o What are the values of your organization?

o How are they reflected in the behaviors you see at work?

• Employee Behaviors

o Describe the behaviors in your organization.

o Are these behaviors consistent with the business strategy?

o Where do they conflict with the strategy?

o What new behaviors are required to align with the strategy?

• Leadership

o How might you and other leaders create new behaviors to support the strategy?

o What specific actions would you implement to communicate, motivate, model the way, coach, inspire the vision, challenge the process, and encourage the heart?

Your response to each part of the assignment should be approximately three pages.

Your final product will be in a word document and be approximately 6–8 pages in length and utilize 4–7 scholarly sources in your research. Your paper should be written in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

By Wednesday, September 20, 2017, deliver your assignment to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

 

Assignment Component Proficient Max Points

Content Knowledge: Understanding

Communicates understanding of the organization’s current vision, mission, and strategy. Response incorporates analysis and synthesis of central concepts of the assigned topic.

 

Response reflects understanding of the nature of the specific topic within the discipline and its applications in contemporary times.

 

Response provides necessary details and specific examples. / 80 pts.

Content Knowledge: Application Component 1

Communicates the ability to analyze the “strategic cascade” of the organization and complete a SWOT analysis. Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.

 

Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.

 

Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.

 

Response is adequately supported by current and relevant literature. / 40 pts.

Content Knowledge: Application Component 2

Communicates the ability to summarize the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements that influence the worker’s behavior. Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.

 

Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.

 

Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.

 

Response is supported by current and relevant literature. / 40 pts.

Content Knowledge: Application Component 3

Communicates the ability to state the ability of the organization to implement the strategy. Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.

 

Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.

 

Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.

 

Response is supported by current and relevant literature. /20 pts.

Written Communication/Personal Effectiveness

Conveys through written word understanding and application of the essential assignment components. Writing is concise and clear in content, language use, grammar, organization, and sentence structure.

 

Writing is free of major grammatical and usage errors. / 20 pts.

Total /200 pts

Data Model Critique

Students will write a critique of the Data Model on the following page. Students should give their opinion of the data model on the next page, Basic Transaction Data by Barry Williams. Students should focus on answering the following questions:

1. What industry would you say this data model is designed for?
2. What is the most important data in this model? Why?
3. Is this model designed for growth? Why or why not?
4. What types of questions is this model designed to help answer?
5. If this data model is for a for-profit business what would you suggest should be the most important data in the model and why?
6. Could your answer to the previous question change if the business is a non-profit?
7. Do you agree with the cardinality of the relationships?
8. Do you think the key relationships are defined appropriately?
9. Does the model appear in to be in third normal form?
10. Do you foresee any recursive relationships in this model? Why or why not?
11. Does the model demonstrate sound structure? Why or why not?