Category: Uncategorized

Instructions

For this assignment, you will research the different ways that managers and leaders use communication to guide their organizations. 

Feel free to use the same organization you researched for the Unit VI Case Study. You are not limited to this organization, but it may be easier to complete the assignment since you have already researched the organization in Unit VI. You can use the same sources for both assignments, if applicable. 

Find an instance where the organizational leader communicates directly with his or her employees, investors, or customers. Analyze the message, the channel, and the potential for feedback. Do you believe that it is effective? Do you believe that it is the same type of message that a manager would send? Why, or why not? 

Remember to focus on the communication styles of both leaders and managers. Strive for an equal balance between the two types of communication styles in your assignment. 

Example: The Apple events that occur in Cupertino whenever Apple unveils a new product or service are examples of the type of communication you should be analyzing in this assignment. During the events, CEO Tim Cook addresses an audience of employees, investors, and the general public. Cook uses multiple channels to communicate with the audience, including a live face-to-face discussion, live streaming of the discussion, and a recorded video. For the assignment, you would view one of the events, analyze Cook’s message and the effectiveness of the channels, and discuss the potential for feedback. Analyze whether or not the message is an effective example of leadership. Explain whether or not you believe a manager could, or should, use the same types of channels to relay a message. Would it be effective? 

Note: You do not need to use Apple for this assignment. It is provided as an example only. 

Use the standard five-paragraph format (introduction/body/conclusion). Include at least two academic sources. APA format should be used. The assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not including the title and reference pages. Content, organization, and grammar/mechanics will be evaluated.

Introduction to Public Administration – Week 3 Assignment

Public Administrator Interview

For this assignment you will need to find a public administrator to interview. You may want to reach out to your local government and ask if you can interview your local City Manager or even the Parks & Recreation Manager. The interview could take anywhere from 15-60 minutes depending on the level of detail discussed.

Below is a list of sample questions that you will want to ask in your interview. You will also need to develop your own questions to add to this list. Once the interview is complete you will submit a 3-4 page summary and reflection of the interview including a list of the questions discussed and a record of your interviewee’s answers. You may want to record the interview in order to provide an accurate record of your participant’s responses.

In writing your reflection, consider what you learned from this experience and how it applies to your interests in public administration.

Questions you will want to ask:

1.  Describe your current position. 

2.  What are your organizations goals, values, and/or mission statement? 

3.  How did you come to work as a public administrator?

4.  What is the most challenging aspect of your role?

5.  What do you find most enjoyable about this line of work?

6.  What do you find it the least enjoyable thing about this line of work?

7.  What are the typical issues/conflicts that you must deal with on a regular basis?

8.  We have discussed intergovernmental relations in class.  How does your agency work with other governmental agencies?

9.  How do you approach decision-making in your role?  Are there specific models or guidelines that your organization endorses? 

10.  How is your organization held accountable?  What happens if the organizational goals are not met?

If you were to give any advice to someone considering a career in public administration, what would you tell them?

 DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Assignment Overview

The case for this module revolves around the question of large-scale data and the implications of database capabilities for organizational data management. As we’ve said, the change from data as a scarce resource to data as overabundance is still a major concern for organizations. Here, you’ll have a chance to consider the value of data and information. Data storage and management was seldom considered a particularly exciting topic; however, when data is used for making better decisions and/or enhancing organizational performance, it is amazing how quickly organizational (and personal) interest can be created.

The new state of having rather too much data to fit into the established databases is increasingly called “big data.” Big data arises from a combination of cheap storage, multiple data input streams, and a general sense that with all of this, there ought to be valuable data in there somewhere. Here are a couple of sources that begin to discuss these issues; you can undoubtedly find more:

Challenges and Opportunities with Big Data (2013).

Mehrotra, P., Pryor, L., Bailey, F. and Cotnoir, M. (2014). Supporting “Big Data” Analysis and Analytiics at the NSAS Supercomputing Facility. NAS Technical Report: NAS-2014-02.

Kaisler, S., Armour, F., Espinosa, J.A., and Money, W. (2013). Big data: Issues and challenge moving forward. 46th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, 1-10.

The trick to coping with “big data” is, of course, better data analytics — that is, that set of statistical mining, and related analytical tools that can be used to identify patterns in the data, assess a variety of associations, and generally illuminate the knowledge that might otherwise be buried in the mounds of numbers. Today, analytics is a rapidly expanding field.

Raghupathi, W. and Raghupathi, V. (2014). Big data analytics in healthcare: Promise and potential. Health and Information Science and Systems, 2(3), 1-10.

ISO/IEC JTC 1 Information Technology Big Data, Preliminary Report, 1-36.

Fujitsu (2015). The White Book of Big Data: The definitive guide to the revolution in business analytics.

So the case for this module revolves around the challenges of “big data” — that is, how to manage it, create reasonable analysis strategies, and at the same time avoid becoming totally dependent on it. Data makes a very good servant, but not a very attractive master.

Case Assignment

When you’ve had a chance to read these articles, anything from the Background that is helpful to you, or anything else you may have come across, please write a 3- to 5-page paper discussing the question:

Problems and Opportunities created by having too much data, and what to do about them

Your paper should be between three and five pages. Take a definite stand on the issues, and develop your supporting argument carefully. Using material from the background information and any other sources you can find to support specific points in your argument is highly recommended; avoid making assertions for which you can find no support other than your own opinion.

Your paper is to be structured as a point/counterpoint argument, in the following manner.

• Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely
• Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you take this position. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.
• Then present the best evidence you can, again cite appropriate sources, against your position — that is, establish what counterarguments can be made to your original position.
• Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.

this module, your task is to try the tutorial SQLCourse – Interactive Online SQL Training for Beginners. This is described as:

This unique introductory SQL tutorial not only provides easy-to-understand SQL instructions, but it allows you to practice what you learn using the on-line SQL interpreter. You will receive immediate results after submitting your SQL commands. You will be able to create your own unique tables as well as perform selects, inserts, updates, deletes, and drops on your tables. This SQL tutorial currently supports a subset of ANSI SQL. The basics of each SQL command will be covered in this introductory tutorial. Unless otherwise stated, the interpreter will support everything covered in this course.

The more of the tutorial you can work through, the better; however, your grade is primarily dependent on how you approach the task and how much learning energy you put into it rather than specific output from the tutorial.

Once you have completed your exploration of the tutorial, you are to prepare a review of the tutorial, like the kind of review that you would find in a good computer/information systems journal or website, covering the following topics:

· what the tutorial taught you and what you learned specifically from the tutorial (>75% of your write-up)

· how effective was the tutorial, who might find the tutorial useful, and any other aspect of the tutorial that you think a reader might find useful

Your paper should be three to four pages in length, and reflect your personal experiences with this issue. The important part of all these project assignments is to carefully assess your own experiences with the topic, and then reflect critically on what you might have learned about yourself and about situations through this assessment process.

The more that you can use the exercise to develop personal implications for your growth as a potential business person as well as a moral individual, the more value you’ll get out of the exercise.