Day: February 9, 2020

Part 1: Stockholders and Management Interests

Stockholders and managers want the same thing, don’t they? Theoretically, yes, but in reality, it does not always work that way. Too often, managers’ personal goals compete with shareholder wealth maximization. Sometimes, managers pay themselves excessive salaries or bonuses that are at odds with the idea of shareholder wealth maximization. How many times have you seen in the news examples of CEO excesses or outlandish spending on events or things that definitely do not help the overall goal of stockholder wealth maximization? 

To prepare for this Discussion, think about a time in your professional experience when a decision was made that seemed to benefit a specific manager or small group of managers and not the overall corporation. If you do not have professional experience directly related to this topic, research a situation in the news where this theme is demonstrated. Consider the outcomes of such an imbalance between manager and stockholder interests, and research on how to avoid such a situation.

Describe the situation from either your professional experience or your research.

Explain two or more motivational tools that can aid in aligning stockholder and management interests.

Explain how your selected tools are effective in resolving potential conflicts among managers and stockholders.

Support your discussion with appropriate academically reviewed articles. Use APA format throughout.

Part 2: Application of Concepts/Time Value of Money

Review the video links below. Based on the materials presented in these videos, discuss how you will use the time value of money concepts in managerial decision making. Be specific and give examples based on your experience or research.

Time Value of Money

Examine the packaging of some of your favorite consumer packaged goods (i.e., foods, household products, etc.). Choose a product and include a photo of EITHER its packaging OR a single static ad (no videos). How does the packaging/ad currently use Cialdinis principles of persuasion? Use at least three principles to suggest some specific improvements to the packaging/ad. Make sure you keep in mind the target audience. Please bold the names of the principles you discuss.

Write-ups have a strict 600-word limit and are penalized for exceeding 600 words (1 point per 50 words, rounded up). Shorter write-ups also tend to do poorly. Aim for 500-600 words. Include the word count and your student ID at the top of the document (e.g., Word Count: 598). Do NOT include your name or question prompt. No fluff rule: Your goal is to show your understanding. Please do NOT write an intro, background, or conclusion. Also do NOT define terms and avoid quoting directly from readings or slides. DO make sure to do the readings thoroughly (the optional ones for that topic may help). Knowledge cannot be faked.

There rarely exist right answers to these questions. Thats what makes the prompts interesting, useful, and fun (we hope). Good write-ups will always reflect a solid understanding of the material but more importantly you should be able to apply the concepts to the prompt. This means that you should not provide definitions and examples from the reading, but instead figure out what concepts are relevant and how they apply to this business situation. The following are a few tangible, specific tips based on years of grading write-ups. I offer them to you in roughly decreasing order of how frustrating their violations are to a grader. 1.Dont regurgitate the reading. You never need to waste space including definitions from the reading. Write as if your audience not only has read the assigned materials but also knows them well. When necessary, cite a concept as briefly as possible. The fact that youve done the reading should be revealed to us by your thinking, NOT by some quotation. 2.Start quickly and end abruptly. For these short write-ups, introductions, background, and conclusions are almost entirely unnecessary. Even worse, they take away space that is much better used in other ways. We dont expect these things to read like English compositions. Nor are we strangers to why youre writing in the first place. Jump right in. 3.Choose specific over abstract. Precision is good. Its good for communication, and its good for sharpening thinking. When you feel yourself getting fuzzy, think to yourself: I need an example. We love examples. Make it real. 4.Be realistic. There is nothing more irritating than a cute suggestion (for example, of how an organization might mitigate a particular bias) that works theoretically but is utterly infeasible in the real world. Perhaps the best criterion is to ask yourself if youd be willing to sit in a managers office advocating his or her use of your recommendation. 5.Less is more. Believe it or not, a common mistake is to include too many ideas not because too many ideas itself is bad, but because these ideas, as intriguing, tantalizing, and, yes, right as they might be, are often too poorly developed. Dont make this mistake! Were not impressed with laundry lists. Its much better to write about a few things really well. Oh, and have fun! This is an opportunity to be creative (the risk-reward tradeoff for creativity is very attractive). A student who is thoughtful and having fun when writing these is generally going to do pretty well. And get more out of it. Thanks!

Prior to completing this assignment, review Assignment 9 in Chapter 17 of your course text. Prepare an evaluation of the performance of the Radiology Department Manager for a hospital.

The service unit, or output, for this department is the number of procedures performed. A static budget was prepared at the beginning of the year. Examine that budget in relation to actual experience. The relevant data are included in Table 17-18 in your course text. The department manager is pleased because the department has a favorable $120,000 cost variance. Evaluate the effectiveness claims of the manager using the budgetary variance mode described in Chapter 17. What is your analysis of the department managers performance? Explain your reasoning.

Your paper must include an introduction, thesis, and conclusion. Your paper must be four to five double-spaced pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Utilize three scholarly and/or peer-reviewed sources (excluding the course text) that were published within the last five years. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and provide complete references for each source used on the reference page.