Scenario 1:
The atmosphere at a small technology firm in California is always confusing and chaotic. Employees are under constant pressure to meet deadlines, and expectations frequently and suddenly change. Despite the lack of clarity, supervisors frequently reprimand employees for failure to perform. Supervisors often give these reprimands publicly. Employees constantly compete for supervisor attention.
Scenario 2:
Workers at a business-consulting firm in Massachusetts do the same job they have done in the same way they have done it for the past ten years. Employees receive almost no supervision or feedback. Leadership does little to promote change or foster creativity. Employees rarely communicate with those outside of their departments. Employees work quietly in an orderly manner but receive little stimulation.
It is likely easy to identify which of the scenarios is less stressful. But is either environment desirable or indicative of a healthy organization?
Normally, the term organizational stress is a negative concept. The majority of stress researchers have focused on personal distress rather than on examining the positive aspect of stress called eustress (Gibbons, Dempster, & Moutray, 2008). Scholars and practitioners need to give more attention to the question of if and when organizational stress can be beneficial.
To prepare:
•Consider your experiences with stress in organizations and how you as a leader would address organizational stress.
By Day 3 of Week 5, post an evaluation of the impact of organizational stress. Explain whether you think organizational stress can be positive, negative, or both.
Then, given your proposed nature of stress, explain how you as a leader of an organization would assess and manage organizational stress. Identify tools you would use to assess organizational stress. Explain how you would promote or minimize stress within an organization.
To support your position, be sure to include references to personal experience and two scholarly resources.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Organizational Stress: Positive or Negative?
The Impact of Organizational Stress
Given that the employees in scenario 1 were always under stress because of the confusing and chaotic environment that exists at the firm, it is evident that organizational stress had a negative effect on the company. However, just as scenario 1 indicates that organizational stress is negative, scenario 2 indicates that a lack of organizational stress is not entirely positive and that it can also have a negative impact on organizations given the lack of employee motivation. According to my work experience in several high pressure environments with highly skilled employees, I noticed that there was a lot of pressure and stress at these organizations, yet this did not affect employees negatively as they were performing way above the expectations of their employers (O’Sullivan, 2010). Although, these employees were under significant stress when doing their jobs, they did not mind the stress and it actually motivated them to work harder and achieve more success (eustress). Therefore, I conclude that organizational stress cam be both positive and negative depending on the existing conditions at the workplace.
Eustress
As the leader of my organization, I would strive to increase positive organizational stress (eustress), while at the same time limiting negative stress mainly by setting challenging goals for employees and encouraging them to work collaboratively to accomplish the work goals (Fullagar, Knight & Sovern, 2013). However, I will also keep in mind that chronic stress whether negative or positive is not good for the organization or its and its people, therefore, I will also include periods of relaxation and fun in the activities of employees at the organization (Hargrove, Nelson & Cooper, 2013). By implementing breaks and fun time within the workers’ daily routines where they suspend their projects and engage in fun activities such as playing indoor games, playing video games, or listening to music, the employees relieve stress and are able to work effectively.
References
Fullagar, C. J., Knight, P. A. & Sovern, H. S. (2013). Challenge/Skill Balance, Flow, and Performance Anxiety. Applied Psychology: An International Review,62(2), 236–259.
Hargrove, M. B., Nelson, D. L. & Cooper, C. L. (2013). Generating eustress by challenging employees. Organizational Dynamics, 42(1), 61-69.
How effective is Virgin Air Human Resource Management in ensuring good Customer Service?
Order Instructions:
the topic is :
I chose Virgin Atlantic because it has a problem that is connected to Human Resource Management form the poor performance in customer service. There are over than 58 persons complained about the customer service of the employees (Dudovskiy, J. ,2012).. Firstly, it effect about their reputation among loyal customer. The first cause was about the few years ago on the quality of the employee was unprofessional with customers also this is because the following cases:
1- According to customer Anne on September 8, 2013, she complains about Virgin employees are unhelpful, ignoring customer, rude and arrogant.
2- In addition, there is anther customer complains about the bad services named Bianca’s which he faced a luggage delayed; with no reply about his complaining form the staff.
There are many causes leads to decrease on the customer services on Virgin. There are internal and external changes have direct and indirect relations in these changing for this purpose, the researcher has selected Virgin Atlantic Airline to develop of Virgin’s human resource strategies to promote quality and reliable customer service delivery. The proposed research work is focusing on understanding how airline industry’s human resource practices influence the quality of services provided to the customers.
My job on the report as consultant for Virgin Air’s which might help them to decrease some problems in their environment.
answer the below Questions and each point include in text reference
Executive Summary
1. Introduction:
1.1 Background:
1.2 What is the virgin issue?
1.3 The propose of the report
2. To what extent does Virgin’s HR Management support good customer service?
2.1 How does virgin’s HRM Support good customer service?
2.2 Academic theory might change HRM?
2.2.1 Maslow can be useful & analysis
2.2.2 Taylor theory of management analysis
2.3 How successful these theory on Virgin’s HRM?
3. HR Strategy
3.1 HRM & Virgin leadership forecast some improvements on the HR Management.
3.1.1 Leadership of truism
3.1.2 Leadership of customer services
3.1.2 leadership Recommendations
3.2 HRM & Motivation can change customer services track?
3.2.1 Motivation theories analysis
3.2.2 Motivation recommendations
4. Conclusion
SAMPLE ANSWER
Virgin Air Human Resource Management
How effective is Virgin Air Human Resource Management in ensuring good Customer Service?
Introduction
Virgin Air is an airline that has a global reputation for being a leader in customer service and most of its loyal customers can attest to this, but recently there have been increasing incidents of complaints by customers who have been treated badly by customer service representatives. These incidents have got the attention of the management who are concerned by the same given that this is a new trend that has not been witnessed in the past and may indicate a deeper human resource management problem that should be resolved before the brand loses its good reputation. The report seeks to unearth the underlying HRM problems if they do exist and propose solutions to the problems. 1.1 Background
Virgin Air is part of the Virgin Group of companies started by Sir Richard Branson under the Virgin brand, which is a popular global brand that is associated with values such as being innovative, prioritizing fun in all they do and above all putting their employees and clients first in everything they do (Virgin Atlantic., 2014). Therefore, the airline and the whole group of companies have thrived on their excellent customer service reputation in the extremely competitive airline industry and the events being reported of poor customer service must be investigated. Virgin Air is aware that any damage to its reputation as an airline that addresses and anticipates all the needs of its customers and attends to them promptly would cause irreparable damage to the airline and the brand in general, which is not acceptable. 1.2 What is the virgin issue?
The Virgin issue is that the whole group of Virgin companies is built on its endearing brand image and any issues that threaten the brand image do not just threaten Virgin Air, but rather such issues threaten the survival of the brand and all its affiliated companies. Therefore, this is not merely a human resource issues or a customer service issue, but it is a crucial issue about the future of the whole Virgin brand and should be treated with a lot of significance. It is also important to mention that the founder of the Virgin brand, Sir Richard Branson cannot allow such incidents to occur, not forgetting the Group CEO and the CEO of Virgin Air. 1.3 The purpose of the report
The main purpose of this report is to investigate the reported complaints about customer service so as to ascertain their validity, after which the report shall try to analyze whether these were isolated incidents or there is an emerging trend that needs to be stopped. If it is clear to the consultants that there is a deeper issue, which should be addressed, then the report shall provide appropriate recommendation on what steps the company should take to correct the problems. The report shall mainly focus on whether the problems identified relate to human resource management and advice the executive board and the HR director accordingly.
To what Extent does Virgin’s HR Management Support good Customer Service?
Virgin’s HR is built on the vision that happy employees will result in happy customers, which is what Richard Branson has always championed in all his companies and the group ensures that all their employees understand their customer service culture thoroughly. The HR culture at Virgin is visible through all its employees who go through a thorough recruitment process where the interviewers seek to hire only those employees who demonstrate that they have the personality traits that would fit in with Virgin’s culture. The recruitment process is where the company weeds out all those people who do not have the same values championed by the company and its founder Sir Richard Branson. 2.1 How does virgin’s HRM Support good customer service?
Another critical way in which Virgin’s HR supports good customer service is by engaging in constant conversation with its employees, especially customer-facing people who deliver the airline’s main product, which is excellent customer service. The HR department is always in direct constant contact with its call center where customers can report any complaints of inadequate or poor service as well as with its cabin crews and airports. Another important function of the HR department at Virgin Air is that it reports directly to the CEO and is directly involved in setting strategies at the company, which ensures that only the best HR practices in line with the company’s culture are implemented. 2.2 Academic theory might change HRM?
I do not believe that academic theories might change HRM at Virgin given that just as Sir Richard says, he has never read a HR book and that all the HR practices that he champions at Virgin are based on values that he believes define his company. I strongly think that no academic theories can change HRM at Virgin, but they can definitely help the company improve some of its HR practices given the depth of the HR function within Virgin. Academic theories can be vital in streamlining Virgin’s values and vision to adapt to the global aviation industry and the new challenges brought on by globalization. The increasing competition within the airline industry and the tough economic times can be handled through correct application of some academic theories. 2.2.1 Maslow can be useful & analysis
Maslow’s theory of human motivation based on his hierarchy of human needs can help Virgin motivate its staff in the right way to offer the best customer service in the industry by addressing all their needs as identified in the hierarchy (CoW, 2014; Schneider, 2004). The different people employed at Virgin have different needs that should all be addressed by the leaders in order for them to deliver excellent customer service. People with physiological and safety needs should be paid enough, given incentives and provided with a safe working environment (Methot, 2010; Tzafrir, & Gur, 2007). Employees who have belonging and self-esteem needs should be recognized, given responsibilities and should be involved in the decision-making process, especially for decision directly related to their work. Employees with self-actualization needs should be given interesting and challenging work, and should be offered training opportunities.
2.2.2 Taylor theory of management analysis
Taylor’s theory of scientific management was based on the principle that both workers and managers needed to relate well, which was unheard of at a time where managers rarely interacted with the workers under them (Mind Tools, 2014; Ueno,. 2012). Some of the core principles of his theory included matching the skills, capabilities, and motivations of workers to their jobs, using scientific methods to develop the most efficient ways of accomplishing tasks, monitoring the performance of workers on their jobs and instructing them on where they went wrong, and allocating work between workers and managers (Di Mascio, 2010, p.65). However, Taylor’s theory does not advocate for individual responsibility (Towler, Lezotte, & Burke, 2011, p.401). 2.3 How successful these theory on Virgin’s HRM?
Taylor’s theory is applicable to Virgin Air in the sense that it advocates for the matching of employees skills and abilities to their jobs, which is an important aspect of Virgin’s HRM strategy and has been crucial to the success of the airline. Maslow’s theory is relevant to Virgin as it advocates for the addressing of all the needs of employees, which is also part of Virgin’s HR policy as they always engage with their employees where they listen to the views of the employees and act on their suggestions.
HR Strategy
Virgin’s HR strategy focuses on finding the right employees with the relevant skills and above all the right spirit and personality that is in harmony with Virgin’s values of excellent customer service and innovation (Lebard, Rendleman, & Dolan, 2014). During recruitment, the right candidates are identified and then they undergo extensive training to learn Virgin’s culture and their role in perpetuating the culture. Once the recruits have been trained they join Virgin’s team, but the training never stops. 3.1 HRM & Virgin leadership forecast some improvements on the HR Management.
Virgin’s executive team acknowledges that more needs to be done so as to bring the standards of their customer services to match the brand image that promises excellent customer service to all customers (HC Online, 2003). Virgin’s leadership promises to improve on its overall leadership strategy in terms of leadership truism and more so in the leadership of the customer services department to prevent any further incidents of poor customer service. 3.1.1 Leadership of truism
Virgin’s leadership wants to adopt a leadership based on truisms such as the fact that the culture of the company is a direct reflection of the value of its leaders, and that the culture of an organization is reflected in the stories told by employees (Petrilli, 2011). These truisms are critical in reshaping the culture at Virgin Air to reflect the overall culture of the Virgin Group. 3.1.2 Leadership of customer services
The leadership of customer services will be given a chance to correct the wrong behaviors of employees within the department within a period of two weeks. The department leader should have identified and removed the employees who caused so much damage to the airline’s image given that their actions not only jeopardize the success of the airline, but that of the entire Virgin Group (Brady, 2012). If the customer service leaders do not take the appropriate measures recommended above, they will be removed and replaced with other more effective managers from within the organization. 3.1.2 Leadership Recommendations
It is my recommendation that Virgin Air’s board examines the conduct of all its top leaders it seems likely that they are not congruent with the values and culture of the Virgin Group. Any leaders who are found to have conducted themselves in a manner opposite to the culture of the group should be immediately removed from their positions and replaced with leaders who have proven that they understand and abide by the values of the Virgin Group (Crush, 2012).
3.2 HRM & Motivation can change customer services track?
I do believe that proper motivation and HRM is the key to implementing successful change within the customer services department at Virgin Air. 3.2.1 Motivation theories analysis
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is quite appropriate for Virgin Air as all people work to satisfy their needs and these needs are clearly stipulated by Maslow’s theory (CoW, 2014; Bowen, 1986). Frederick Herzberg’s theory is also appropriate as he clarifies that people will only do something in order to gain a benefit or to avoid incurring a loss. These two theories complement themselves in their application to Virgin Air and may lead to significant changes at Virgin Air.
3.2.2 Motivation recommendations
I recommend that Virgin Air should motivate its employees by satisfying all their needs according to Maslow’s theory and to ensure that their work with the airline results in the employees benefitting according to Herzberg’s theory. The airline should also adopt the general Virgin Group motivation strategies in their motivation programs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have found that the incidents of poor customer service at Virgin Air were not isolated and that the leadership was culpable in the emerging negative trends as reports by customers had indicated. Therefore, I have recommended that the leaders in charge of customer service be censured and given a chance to correct his mistakes or be removed from his position. I have also made recommendations on how the company can implement change throughout its ranks moving forward from this point. The airline should implement my recommendation for there to be lasting change in the organization and to save the brand image from irreparable damage by customer service agents.
References
Bowen, D. E. 1986, Managing Customers as Human Resources in Service Organizations. Human Resource Management. 25(3), 371-383.
Schneider, B. 2004, Welcome to the world of services management. Academy of Management Executive. 18(2), 144-150.
Towler, A., Lezotte, D. V., & Burke, M. J. 2011, ‘The service climate-firm performance chain: The role of customer retention. Human Resource Management, Vol. 50(3), 391-406.
Tzafrir, S. S. & Gur, A. B. A. 2007, HRM Practices and Perceived Service Quality: The Role of Trust as a Mediator. Research & Practice in Human Resource Management. 15(2), 1-16.
Ueno, A. 2012, Which HRM practices contribute to service culture? Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. 23(11/12), 1227-1239.
A successful claim of negligence must establish the existence of duty of care, breach of duty, verification of injury and causation. A duty of care arises from a legal obligation of care, observance or performance imposed on a party to safeguard the rights of another. The hospital and its employees owed a duty of care to Mrs. Smith on ground that she sought the hospital’s medical services and was attended to by the hospital’s employees. The hospital breached its duty by not making sure that Mrs. Smith could not contract a staph infection or that she got attended to immediately she got the infection. As a result of complications of the infection, Mrs. Smith contracted an autoimmune disease. The staph infection was caused by the negligence of Dr. Patrow, the hospital’s employee, who failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the infection could not spread through contact such as changing gloves between each patient and washing clothes out of the room.
The doctrine of Respondeat Superior applies in this case. The hospital is liable for the wrongful acts of its employees due to the fact that it failed to ensure that there were adequate rules and procedures, that the rooms contained adequate gloves for every patient, that the physicians washed their hands out of the room, and that the staff members were properly trained on dealing with infections. Thus, the hospital is vicariously liable for the injury caused to Mrs. Smith by the negligence of its employees. Mrs. Smith is entitled to indemnification by the hospital for the injury. Mrs. Smith should be indemnified the costs incurred for treating the autoimmune disease.
Reference
Learnscape. (2012). Hospital Nightmare. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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Knowledge Management Case Study
Knowledge management is more than clusters of relational databases, humming along to the tune of the organization’s strategic plan. It is about aligning information technology tools with organizational strategy, about understanding the organization, its environment, and its people.
Two case studies from the articles located below in the resources section, one authored by Yilmaz and the other by Cox, take very different approaches to the problem of implementing a knowledge management system. Yilmaz examines an international firm that has no contact at all with the end customer and takes up the problem of knowledge sharing, transfer, and the prerequisites necessary to facilitate the successful implementation of a KM system. Cox takes up the case of Xerox and the development of a commercial database system.
After reading both cases, prepare a 5- to 7-page analysis, fully documented and cited in APA format, that answers the following questions:
• What were the organizational objectives that were “solved” by the implementation of knowledge management in each case? What obstacles were faced and how were they overcome?
• How does the problem of “knowledge,” as raised by Cox, relate to the issues with the Eureka system? To what degree is this a persistent problem for organizations? Using additional resources, address the question of “organizational knowledge” as a definitional problem as well as a logistical one.
• How do attitudes within the organization, as well as the structure of the organization itself, impact the successful implementation of a KM system? How are these attitudinal issues best resolved?
Its important to clearly indicate all the different responses in your paper for easy understanding of your analyses
Resources to read and use to complete the paper
Articles
• Mohamed, M., Stankosky, M., & Murray, A. (2006). Knowledge management and information technology: Can they work in perfect harmony? Journal of Knowledge Management, 10(3). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM global database.
The authors address the distinction between the functions of information technology and the objectives of knowledge management and raise the question: are these two processes compatible?
• Yilmaz, Y. (2007). Pre-analysis process for knowledge management: A case study in a building materials company. VINE, 37(1). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM global database.
This article reviews how knowledge management (KM) methods can be implemented in organizations effectively and also provides a framework to explain how knowledge-based process analyses can be applied.
• Cox, A. (2007). Reproducing knowledge: Xerox and the story of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 5(1). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM global database.
This article presents information on discursive transformations at Xerox, explaining that how knowledge is represented and what knowledge management might mean are heavily influenced by vested corporate interests. It also stresses the need to capture complexity in case studies if they are to promote a realistic or critical understanding of the organization
SAMPLE ANSWER
Knowledge Management
Case Study
In the present day world, KM has a huge role in enhancing employee proficiency, operations efficiency, cost mitigation, and promoting a company’s image. It also helps in formulating attainable goals as well as an elaborate implementation framework. This paper aims at analyzing two case studies on KM; Turkish multinational and Xerox. The case studies are greatly insightful since they exemplify KM systems alignment to organizational objectives as well as different challenges that are experienced during the implementation process (Mohamed, Stankosky & Murray, 2006).
Organizational objectives that were “solved” by the implementation of knowledge management
Turkish multinational
Both the Xerox and Turkish multinational have features of distinct organizational objectives. It is evident that KM systems were useful in solving different organizational objectives in the two entities. According to the Turkish International Company’s analytical framework, one of its pertinent objectives is minimizing shipment costs. There is use of the KM systems’ framework so as to promote minimization of shipment costs to overseas customers. To ensure low shipment costs for the products, the company uses KM systems in evaluating appropriate platforms for averting high costs (Yilmaz, 2007).
Moreover, KM systems implementation enabled Turkish multinational to transfer a bigger shipment costs’ percentage to customers. Another organizational objective is the customers’ needs evaluation. Since the company has an expansive base of customers for its products both internationally and domestically, the company aims at excellently understanding the different customers’ needs. Therefore, the company utilized various KM systems’ platforms to achieve this (Yilmaz, 2007). The company utilizes KM systems in determining if the products the customers need are in stock. In case there are some materials not present in the stock, the novel components are included in the production system immediately. Such a KM framework bolstered the blueprint of the organization for satisfying the different customers’ requirements both internationally and domestically (Yilmaz, 2007).
Xerox
KM systems’ implementation is narrowed down so as to solve different organizational objectives. One of the outstanding organizational goals is rebranding. Xerox considers the rebranding framework to be a pertinent approach for bolstering competitiveness standards. In reference to the case study’s insights, there is a strong emphasis on KM systems so as to cater relevant rebranding standards. In relation to these perspectives, Xerox came up with a perfect blueprint for transforming its framework for management of information. According to Orr, the company relied on storytelling for information management but this was linked to numerous inefficiencies (Cox, 2007). As a result of this, the company increasingly adopted Eureka platforms within KM framework. The Eureka platforms were significantly more technical as opposed to the traditional storytelling approach. The escalated Eureka system integration bolstered the KM standards in the workforce of the company.
IT components’ integration in the organizational operations was another vital objective for Xerox. The company used KM systems as the vital stepping stone for IT efficiency enhancement across various units. While IT was a vital integration aspect into organizational operations, there was a need to determine the bet implementation platforms. The company was therefore able to use suitable software and hardware components across different departments. The company was hence able to achieve core competitiveness goals (Cox, 2007).
The obstacles and how they were solved
To Xerox, the organizational culture change was a major obstacle. It was mitigated through sensitizing the employees regarding the significance of utilizing the technical approach to the organizational information systems. The major obstacle that the Turkish multinational faced was lack of direct contacts with the overseas customers. This was solved through using marketing and sales entities who bridged the gap between the customers and company.
How the problem of “knowledge,” as raised by Cox, relate to the issues with the Eureka system and the prevalence of the problems in organizations
Cox has raised a number of aspects that are connected to the knowledge challenge. One of the notable challenges that Cox exemplifies relates to authenticity. The challenge is persistent based on the fact that a majority of the researchers based KM systems on past studies, which undermines originality standards that these researchers attain. This challenge massively relates to the Eureka system’s framework. Knowledge should validated formally since this fosters the achievement of the best originality standards.
The second challenge touches on oral perspectives. In cases where knowledge is passed orally, manipulation and distortion are highly likely. Moreover, vital details can be lost easily in interpretation or translation of knowledge. There is a strong link between this challenge and the Eureka system. Knowledge should be provided in structured databases and encoded, which massively prevents potential distortion. Cox emphasizes that generalization of information is a critical challenge.
Based on the Eureka system’s framework, information needs to be individualistic. As such, relevant solutions can be sought for every problem. From a varying standpoint, there is a great need to evaluate the persistence of these challenges across the organization. Essentially, the knowledge problems’ persistence degree is strongly based on the management systems an organization uses. For example, change management should be accompanied by effective platforms.
At the organizational level, the transformational leader has great potential to cope with different KM challenges. On the contrary, the various issues that are linked to Eureka system may be highly prevalent in organizations having rigid leadership structures. The extensive information technology systems’ implementation in the present-day organizations is a vital factor that positively contributes towards KM systems’ enhancement. Information technology possesses excellent components that can bolster the KM systems’ framework based on varying organizational requirements (Cox, 2007).
Founded on these attributes, organizations that use effective ICT frameworks face less knowledge problems. IT greatly helps an organization to identify the best Eureka system’s aspects that can be integrated in the operational blueprint. The employees’ competence is a vital attribute as it greatly influences knowledge problems’ persistence in organizations. A workforce that is highly competent can easily assimilate KM changes.
“Organizational knowledge” as a definitional and logistical problem
The issue on organizational knowledge may be analyzed as a definitional or logistical challenge. From the definitional standpoint, various forms of interpretations characterize organizational knowledge. Although some entities interpret it inaccurately, some organizations do it accurately (Maier, 2004). The interpretive framework’s efficiency determines the companies’ ability to avert the various knowledge implementation challenges. From the logistical viewpoint, the issue on organizational knowledge is influenced massively by the organizational leaders’ competence to implement the KM systems.
Effect of organizational attitudes and structure on the successful KM system implementation
KM systems implementation is influenced massively by attitudes and organizational structure in a company.
Organizational structure
The leadership systems greatly determine the effectiveness of the whole implementation phase. While some systems of leadership support KM strongly, others are less concerned. In essence, supportive leadership systems offer the best implementation environment since there is excellent KM systems’ implementation standards as opposed to unsupportive leadership systems (Maier, 2004).
It is primarily pertinent that the systems for decision making are concomitant with immense KM implementation requirements. For example, the platforms for decision making should offer an exceptional framework for defining and interpreting organizational knowledge. High decision making standards are incredibly vital in bolstering the KM systems’ outcomes.
The leader-employee relationships are very useful in shaping the efficiency achieved following KM systems’ implementation. There is a great need for excellent communication frameworks between the employee and leader. Communication inefficacies definitely have a negative influence on the implementation process (Fernandez, 2010).
Attitudes
If employees have positives attitudes in relation to different KM systems, excellent efficiency levels are achieved from KM systems use across an organization. In this regard, organizational leaders have a great role in boosting the employees’ attitudes towards KM systems. The leaders should also set proper working precedent in regard to the different KM systems’ stipulations. As a result, other employees are motivated towards embracing changes.
Resolving attitudinal issues
There are a number of strategies that an organization can integrate in its efforts to mitigate different structural and attitudinal issues. It is important to promote the employees’ awareness about the vital KM systems’ role in an organization. Leaders should be at the front position in promoting acceptable KM systems in all departments. Using information technology goes a long way in strengthening organizational structures so as to enhance integration on the most relevant KM systems. There is also a need to set aside sufficient resources for implementing KM systems in the organization (Fernandez, 2010)
References
Cox, A. (2007). Reproducing knowledge: Xerox and the story of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 5:3-12
Fernandez, I. B. (2010). Knowledge management: Systems and processes. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe Inc.
Maier, R. (2004). Knowledge management systems. New York, NY: Springer Publishers
Mohamed, M., Stankosky, M., & Murray, A. (2006). Knowledge management and information technology: Can they work in perfect harmony? Journal of Knowledge Management, 10(3). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM global database.
The Malden Mills case study just the way you have it.
SAMPLE ANSWER
The Malden Mills Case Study
As a private strategic consultant, the scheduled strategic plan for the company will have to be reviewed as a result of the dramatic misfortune that has befallen it. Owing to this situation, decisions will have to be made on both the strategic and operational fronts and viable plans for the future of the company formulated. In this study, knowledge regarding the strategic planning models, decision processes, and an SWOT analysis of the business and its environment will be applied.
Development of an effective strategic plan for the current unfortunate situation, understanding of strategic thinking processes, and tools such as issue based planning will be used. In the issue-based strategic planning, external and internal assessment to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the current business circumstances need to be determined. The criteria for planning will also involve strategic analysis to identify and prioritize the major issues that arise from this situation and the short and long term goals that need to be made. This criteria will also include the establishment of action plans that will be used to implement these strategies. The areas that will be covered by the action plan will include the needed resources, objectives of the implementation, and the roles of individual stakeholders in the process of implementation. Organic planning can also be used in this case to clarify the organisational cultural values in relation to various stakeholders within the Malden Mills environment (Thompson & Strickland, 2011).
Key stakeholder analysis will also be necessary in the implementation and design of the strategic and operational plan to help move the organisation from the current situation to an ideal one. The stakeholders are people or organisations that are negatively or positively impacted by the operations of the company. Key stakeholders are those with significant amount of influence within the organisation and include the employees who would soon lose their job positions. As a result of the burning of the textile mills, several parties will be affected including the management of the company that includes Mr. Farnsworth, who have to deal with the rebuilding of the company and shareholders who belong to the Farnsworth family. Others include the insurance company that will handle the insurance claim of the fire on the assets of family fabric, and the entire council and community of the town especially the individuals who might have been displaced as a result of the fire. The harmonious relationships among stakeholders will greatly affect the post-crisis responses of this incident in the organisation (Weiss, 1994).
A recommendation for direct action will involve short-term crisis management strategies such as ensuring those injured in the inferno have the most effective health care to avoid any lawsuits that may arise due to negligence. Sending corporate gifts and get-well messages as a simple act of compassion can save the company millions of dollars in legal and compensation fees. The next most immediate action would be to salvage any assets left after the inferno. These would include raw materials, finished goods, and some plant and machinery that might have survived the inferno. The cost of reusing these materials or refurbishing these assets would be far much less than procuring and buying new items. The employees of the company will then be asked politely through direct email to not resume work until investigations about the cause of the fire are finished, and cumulative damage done to the factory accounted for. This notice will provide the management of the company with ample time to set up back-to-work strategy for the employees since the company is deemed as an economic cornerstone for the community. This communication will minimize the expected worry and uncertainty of workers, the community, and other stakeholders in general and give at a minimum some hope and reassurance (Wells, 1997).
The long-term strategy for the future of family fabrics will depend on its long-term considerations. These considerations include the rise of competition in the textile market since the outdoor clothing manufacturers and design houses have expressed an interest in the product and the demand for it is high. The second consideration for the future would be providing a plan to ensure that the universal decline of the textile industry due to technological advances, foreign competition because of the availability of cheap labour, and other hosts of economic factors such as the decline of disposable income from traditional customers of the company, does not affect the company. The third factor to consider for the future of the company would be securing the necessary funds from other financial bodies such as banks and other outside investors for the restoration of the century-old building and all its contents including other machinery and technology. Closure of the company is not an option since its death will result to the death of all the economic activities in the town due to the loss of jobs for the employees who are inhabitants of the town. Increased financing from either debt or equity might make the Farnsworth family lose a significant share of their stake in the company unless they find a way of getting all the finances necessary to rebuild Family Fabrics by themselves (Hill & Jones, 2010).
A plan for viable business options for family fabrics would include painful decisions such as reducing the overall employee numbers working in a factory until all operations resume as usual. Other business options would be to expand the market base for the “Arctic Cloth” into other international markets. This can be done cheaply by considering building a branch of the company in an area with cheaper labour and freer labour loss. The profit margin of the company as a result might increase if the management of the company decides to reduce the retail price of the commodity thus maximizing in the economies of scope and scale. The company also needs to invest in more technologically advanced processes of production and utilize the produced by order basis (Drucker & Maciariello, 2008).
The efforts above will guide the management in the development and growth of the operational plans necessary to achieve a “big picture” as prescribed by the longer-term considerations of the management team of family fabrics if the organisation’s core competencies are used to bring about some competitive advantage and critical goal achievements.
References
Drucker, P. F., & Maciariello, J. A. (2008) Management (Rev. Ed) New York, NY: Collins.
Hill, C. W., & Jones, G. R. (2010) Strategic management cases: an integrated approach (9th Ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.
Thompson, J., & Strickland, I. A. (2011) Crafting and executing strategy: concepts and readings global edition concepts and readings (18th-rev. ed., global Ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
It is important to note that this paper is in two sections , and it is critical that the writer follow every bit of instructions noting that this is a continues paper of which another section will be coming in the weeks ahead. They are resources at the end of the paper that can also aid in the completions of the paper.
The Current State of IT in Your Organization: A Snapshot
For this paper you will have an opportunity to examine theoretical, practical, and empirical points of view regarding the use of IT to establish competitive advantage. This exercise will allow you to apply the knowledge you have gained to the MIS situation in your own organization, or one you know well. You will conduct first-person research, so choose an organization where this will be possible. You will conduct an assessment of the “state” of IT within your organization, or the organization you have chosen to investigate, including an analysis of the organization’s key MIS initiatives, in which you evaluate the current MIS strategy and its impacts. A key element of the Praxis Paper is the identification and framing of an organizational problem that relates to the topics covered in the course. Your research should lead you to identify possible solutions to the problem(s) you identify. You will apply knowledge gained in the course in order to present advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to the problem(s).
The Praxis Paper 1 will comprise 8–10 pages in APA format. One to three diagrams and presentation slides may be included, but they will be additional to the required length of the paper. You are required to include research from at least two first-person interviews and at least two peer-reviewed practitioner or scholarly journals. For this paper, you will submit 2 sections to your Instructor:
As you identify and analyze key MIS initiatives, strategies, issues, and/or problems unique to your chosen organization in your paper, be sure to incorporate a discussion on subjects such as :
• Any ethical concerns related to managing and communicating data or information that may be confidential or protected, such as customer information or intellectual property.
• The types of knowledge that your organization is attempting to or would like to encode in KM systems.
• Issues related to knowledge management and sharing across business units such as products, services, and sales.
• The impact of database management and knowledge management on business objectives.
SECTION A
Write details about the organization you have chosen and the individuals you plan to interview
For this section identify three individuals in your chosen organization whom you will interview for the purposes of this assignment. They should be individuals who understand the organization’s strategic use of IT to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace and are willing to meet with you to discuss these initiatives. Please be aware that you will also interview individuals in your chosen organization for the Praxis Paper 2 . Please ensure that you properly schedule your interviews based on the individuals’ availability.
For this section , analyze
• The company you have chosen to examine and an explanation for your choice.
• The names, titles, and details of availability for the individuals you will interview.
SECTION B
This section should include a complete draft of your paper in order to receive and incorporate feedback from your Instructor
As you identify and analyze key MIS initiatives, strategies, issues, and/or problems unique to your chosen organization in your paper, be sure to incorporate a discussion of the themes found in this week’s topics, where appropriate. These may include:
• Any ethical concerns related to managing and communicating data or information that may be confidential or protected, such as customer information or intellectual property.
• The types of knowledge that your organization is attempting to or would like to encode in KM systems.
• Issues related to knowledge management and sharing across business units such as products, services, and sales.
• The impact of database management and knowledge management on business objectives.
Resources
Course Text
Haag, S., & Cummings, M. (2008). Management information systems for the information age (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Chapter 1, “The Information Age in Which You Live: Changing the Face of Business”
Articles
• Carr, N. G. (2003). IT doesn’t matter. Harvard Business Review, 81(5). Retrieved from the Business Source Premier database.
This article claims that IT within the business environment is becoming less important as it becomes more widespread and the costs associated with it decrease.
• Bhatt, G., & Grover, V. (2005). Types of information technology capabilities and their role in competitive advantage: An empirical study. Journal of Management Information Systems, 22(2). Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
This article presents an empirical study of firms that have invested in IT capabilities and the impact those capabilities had on establishing competitive advantage. This article identifies concrete and practical results of IT investment. It is a refutation of Carr’s article (2003) in the Harvard Business Review.
SAMPLE ANSWER
The Current State of IT in Your Organization
The Current State of IT at Amazon
Amazon.com is an internet giant and one of the fastest large-scale retail companies selling its products online through their website. As such, it will offer a good case study for analysis of the state of IT in earning competitive advantage within the industry. Since its 1995 inception, it has grown to become the largest internet retailer globally. Amazon has special interest in innovation in business strategy as well as the management of information systems. The two aspects of business, innovation and management of IS, are interconnected at Amazon with its business innovations being driven by the huge investment the company has in information systems.
The founder, Jeff Bezos, took advantage of the business opportunity being offered by the internet back in 1995 to start Amazon as a website for selling books online directly to customers. The idea was to store as many books as possible, which would not have been possible through a physical bookstore. The concept of the virtual bookstore presented this opportunity, and he was able to offer lower prices since he did not have to maintain much inventory rather operating through distributors. Consequently, he did not have to pay for the maintenance of a physical storefront or a large sales staff. Through online tracking and shipping information, ability to pay for purchases using a single-click and a credit card, and telephone and e-mail customer support, the company is able to provide superior customer service. 1n 1998, Amazon expanded its sales and revised its business strategy to include other products such as music, CDs, DVDs, and videos as well as electronics, gourmet food, jewelry, personal care, apparel, and home improvement equipment (Thompson, 2013).
At Amazon, the three individuals to be involved in the interview are Jeffrey Blackburn; Business Development Director, Andrew Jassey; the Web Services Director, and Jeffrey Wilke; Consumer Business Director. The three directors were chosen for the interview because of their availability and the fact that on request they agreed to participate in the study. Again, the three leaders are well versed with the company’s strategy pertaining to IT and the competitive advantage it offers the company.
Section B
Commenting on how they are able to maintain a competitive advantage over rivals, Jeffrey Blackburn in charge of the company’s Business Development talks of benchmarking the business processes against competitors and consequently identifying best industry practices. They do this by comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of their business processes against strict standards and then embarking on measuring performance against those standards. This sets the platform for the improvement of the business strategies and processes through operational excellence, improving profit margins, lowering costs, and fostering a closer relationship with suppliers and customers. He further notes that by working with all the people involved in the company and information systems, Amazon is able to gather customer information from all available avenues and harness this electronically and to use it to improve the customer experience. For instance, at Amazon, they have systems that make it easy for suppliers to open stores and display goods on their website. The company has a well-developed system that coordinates the shipment of goods to the customers. Moreover, the shipment tracking system enables them to access customer information for use in benchmarking.
For Jeffrey Wilke, the Consumer Business Director, the customer tracking strategy where they are able to customize customer’s experience is an effective way of gaining a competitive advantage for the company. By analyzing the information gathered through the knowledge management strategy, they are able to recommend certain products for existing clients every time they visit their website. Wilke affirms that Amazon is able to offer personalized customer service based on an analysis of their past purchases. The company also adopts the direct Amazon-to-buyer approach to sales.
Andrew Jassey is the Director in charge of the Web Services in the company notes that their multi-leveled e-commerce strategy is what offers them a competitive advantage that they enjoy over others in the industry. The company has an application on their Website that allows potential sellers to use their platform to reach out to customers. Through the application, Amazon allows the sellers or associates to build websites on their platform. Jassey notes that this application allows the growth of a very rich database of applications and products accessible by customers. At Amazon, Jessey further notes that IT plays a powerful role in establishing business ecosystems. The company through the use of IT systems has developed IT-based platforms that other companies can use. Amazon’s offers their online store business platforms to other companies such as Fortune 500 firms like Dell to sell directly to the customers. IT has enabled Amazon to create highly synchronized industry specific value chains. The value webs are a collection of independent companies using IT to coordinate their value chains so as to produce a product for the market collectively.
The value web diagram:
(Goh & Kauffman, 2013).
Strategic IT systems have the capacity to change a company as well as its operating procedures and products, driving it into new behavioral patterns. Amazon has had to change their business strategy a number of times so as to reflect new technologies, procedures, and products as the company expands. The case of Amazon demonstrates that successful use of MIS is a challenging task that calls for precise coordination of the management, organizations, and technology. According to Goh and Kauffman (2013), companies using the MIS strategy to earn a competitive advantage over others in the industry are faced with the challenge of losing it over time as other companies have access to the same and can easily copy and adopt the systems. As such, there is a need for continuous and aggressive adoption of new strategies and technologies to keep ahead of others. This should, however, be coupled with effective management strategies and other organizational elements such as unique corporate culture as is the case at Amazon.
One of the ethical dilemmas facing Amazon is on the ownership of the company data. Customer information is such a crucial asset for Amazon, which poses a challenge in safeguarding it from potential theft by employees or system hackers. Such intrusions by criminals could lead to comprise of crucial customer information and great losses for the company (Goh & Kauffman, 2013). The company has a mandate to safeguard customer information from any intrusions. Amazon’s knowledge management strategy treats knowledge component of their business activities as an explicit concern of business and reflected in their business strategy, policy, and practice at all the levels of the company. This has been made collaborative and integrated process directed towards creating, capturing, organization, and access of the intellectual assets. Through the knowledge management process, customer information is turned to actionable knowledge and electronically made available in a usable form to the various departments.
Some scholars have in the past claimed that IT no longer earns businesses a competitive advantage. Nick Carr in his article “IT Doesn’t Matter,” for the first time challenged the strategic value of IT. His argument is that the opportunities for gaining competitive advantage through it are dwindling. The idea is that most of the best practices that most can be built into software and for IT-spurred transformations has already happened or is in the process of happening. Carr instead advocated for less spending on IT as a means of reducing costs and decreasing the risk of buying the equipment that are fast turning obsolete (Carr, 2003). During the time of writing the article, IT companies were in a hurry to sell latest server models seen then as a key to strategic advantage. Companies were in turn in a hurry to position their business on the cutting-edge of infrastructure. One thing though is certain; Carr got people thinking about the direction that IT application was going. For instance, the main challenge of companies concerning their It department has shifted to cloud computing. Companies are now restructuring their IT departments in an effort to form them around cloud systems and applications.
The skeptic view of IT in earning a competitive advantage for companies, in other studies and by several scholars, has been widely refuted. Scholars postulate firms can achieve a better understanding of the IT-based competitive advantage by demarcating specific forms of capabilities. Specifically, companies need to clearly distinguish between dynamic, competitive, and value capabilities as the three distinct types of capabilities. Moreover, within each of the categories specific capabilities can be identified as IT business experience, It infrastructure, intensity of organizational learning, and relationship infrastructure.
Bhatt and Grover in 2005 conducted an empirical study involving chief IT executives from 202 manufacturing firms. The aim of undertaking this analysis was to test the model describing the relationship between the three distinct types of capabilities and competitive advantage. The findings of the study revealed that the relationship infrastructure and the quality of IT business expertise had a significant effect on competitive advantage. In addition, the intensity of organizational learning was also shown as significantly correlated with the capabilities. As such, the results point to the significance of delineating capabilities that can create differentiation in the marketplace and the dynamic capabilities as important antecedents to IT capacity building (Bhatt & Grover, 2005).
In another study, Roberts and Grover investigated how IT facilitates a company’s customer agility and in so doing competitive advantage. The study conducted in 2012 involved 1200 marketing managers working in high-tech companies. The results showed that a Web-based customer infrastructure to a great extent facilitated the capability of a company in customer-sensing. They also identified that systems integration moderates the relationship between the capability of a company to respond to customers and the inter-functional coordination positively. In addition, they found out that agility alignment also affects the efficacy of an organization’s competitive actions. Information systems play a crucial part in facilitating a firm’s knowledge creating synergy derived from the interaction between a firm’s analytical ability and its Web-based customer infrastructure. In turn, the alignment between a company’s customer-sensing capacity and its customer-responding capacity greatly impacts its competitive advantage (Roberts & Grover, 2012). The study confirmed claims that IT capability to create knowledge and enhance processes can be a great step towards facilitating a company’s ability to sense and respond to market opportunities. By facilitating a company’s customer agility, IT promotes competitive advantage. Agile organizations are in a position to adapt and perform well even in rapidly changing environments through capitalizing on opportunities for competitive action and innovation such as developing strategic alliances, entering new market segments, and launching new products. The advancement of IT presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage their customer agility. Customers can generate ideas for new products and use IT-based tools to provide end-user product support on the online environment. As a result, the social relationships developing between the different entities in online communities generate a continuous flux of very valuable knowledge. Consequently, companies that are able to absorb this external knowledge effectively are better able to sense and respond to opportunities.
As Luse and Mennecke (2014) note, other studies have revealed positive linkages between IT investment and productivity attributing the scenario to improvement in business structures, processes, and practices needed to leverage technologies. This is contrary to the earlier discussed assertions by Carr that It is ubiquitous, costly, and accessible to all companies and as such cannot provide differentiation advantage. In this regard, what companies need is to distinguish between undifferentiated IT assets as the ability to manage the assets. Effective managing of the IT assets is a capability capable of creating uniqueness and providing competitive advantage.
Information Technology strategy:
(Goh & Kauffman, 2013).
In economic sense, IT alters both the cost of information and the relative costs of capital as a factor of production substituting the traditional labor and capital. As such, It should be seen to reduce the cost of production in terms of labor and cost of certain capitals such as buildings and machinery. The use of networks is helpful in lowering the cost of market participation making it worthwhile for companies to contract external suppliers instead of the use of internal sources. Arguing from the Agency Theory perspective, IT can also reduce the internal costs of management. According to this theory, a firm is conceptualized as a nexus of contracts that is in existence among self-interested individuals in it rather than a unified, profit-maximizing entity. The principle owner then employs agents to perform work on his behalf. Nevertheless, agents will require constant management and supervision, and as firms grow in size, the agency costs rise (Luse & Mennecke, 2014). By reducing the cost of gathering and analyzing information, IT allows companies to reduce the agency cost since it becomes easier for the management to oversee greater number of agents.
The interaction between IT and an organization is dependent on several mediating factors such as organizational culture, structure, business processes, politics, management decisions, and surrounding environment. Information systems have in the modern marketplace become an integral, online, interactive tool in the daily operations of organizations. They have over the past decade fundamentally altered the way activities are carried out within organizations, thus, greatly impacting on the possibilities of conducting business.
References
Bhatt, G. D., & Grover, V. (2005). Types of Information Technology Capabilities and Their Role in Competitive Advantage: An Empirical Study. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 22(2), 253.
Carr, N. G. (2003). IT doesn’t matter. Harvard Business Review, 81(5). Retrieved from the Business Source Premier database.
Goh, K., & Kauffman, R. J. (2013). Firm Strategy and the Internet in U.S. Commercial Banking. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 30(2), 9.
Luse, A., & Mennecke, B. (2014). IT can matter: co-evolution fostering IT competitive advantage. Management Research Review,37(6), 574.
Thompson D. The Riddle of Amazon: the global shopping behemoth is beloved by investors despite practically nonexistent profits and a bewildering grand strategy. What exactly is Jeff Bezos trying to build?. The Atlantic [serial online]. 2013:26.
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Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescent Navajo Indians
Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescent Navajo Indians
Order Instructions:
Please take note that I will send two document for this assignment , which will include the letter to the stakeholder, and a promotional pamphlet which the writer is to use for this paper. also he has to search online for additional information on this particular case study as require by the assignment . He should pay attention to all details and respond to all questions in the case study clearly as the prof will asses to see that all questions where responded to. They are 5 key questions in the case study, so the writer must provide 5 key sections clearly responding to this 5 questions
Case Study: Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescent Navajo Indians
Directions
For this assignment please follow these instructions in sequence.
– Complete all assigned reading noted in the resource section at the end of the questions before attempting this assignment.
– Review the two promotional documents provided for the launch of the community health promotion ( letter to stakeholders and Promotional Pamphlet).
– Locate data and documents necessary to answer the case study questions from the internet.
Case Study Questions:
a. As a key stakeholder, were you swayed to support this community health Initiative? Please support your yes or no answer with rationale
b. Was the data presented sufficient to support this community health proposal?
c. Identify at least four strengths of this proposal?
d. Identify at least four weaknesses of this proposal?
e. For the weaknesses identified propose valid solutions with supporting rationales
These answers should be contained in a paper no longer than 3 pages, excluding title page and references. The document should be in appropriate 6th edition APA format.
Resources to aid in the paper.
Health Promotion in Nursing Practice
• Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
Benjamins, M. R., & Whitman, S. (2010). A Culturally Appropriate School Wellness Initiative: Results of a 2-Year Pilot Intervention in 2 Jewish Schools. Journal Of School Health, 80(8), 378-386.
It is important that writer read and reference to the above readings for this paper.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescent Navajo Indians
Was the stakeholder swayed?
There are high chances that the key stakeholder will be swayed based on the fact that this is meant to create awareness. On the contrary, the matter is very critical and requires immediate and solid support and attention. It was important to point out that diabetes was infrequent among the Navajo youths who were less than ten years. On the contrary, the incidence and prevalence of the disease was extremely high among the older youths. This would have been very vital in ensuring that the main stakeholder supported the program at Gallup, New Mexico and beyond. Moreover, if aware of the seriousness of the disease though the incidence, prevalence, and impacts among the adolescent Navajo youths, he would also support the proposed prevention and management strategies.
Sufficiency of the data
The data provided was not adequate to support the proposal. It was important to present the facts regarding the prevalence, incidence, factors contributing to the disease, and the effects the disease has on the adolescent Navajo Indians. This would have emphasized the gravity of the issue and, thereby, ensuring more support of the proposal. Emphasizing how critical a matter is among a certain target group as well as how the disease impacts on the affected can go a long way in ensuring that the program is supported as needed.
Strengths
The proposal is prepared by professional nurses from Gallup Indian Medical Center. In this case, the school community has higher chances of accepting the proposal based on credible professionalism. Moreover, the proposal was written by the lead designer of the proposal. Second, the proposal is relevant to the challenges facing the Navajo Indians (Work group for community health and development at the University of Kansas, 2012). The community health proposal addresses prevention of diabetes types 2 among the adolescent Navajo Indians. This is based on the fact that the prevalence of the disease is high among the adolescents and, therefore, many other stakeholders are likely to support the community health proposal since it addresses an actual community challenge (Tran et al., 2014).
Third, the target group chosen for the community health proposal is fit. It was strategic for the proposal proponents to choose a middle school system (5TH, 6TH, 7TH, or 8TH grade students) in Gallup New Mexico since these basically constitute of the affected adolescents. It was easier to locate the target group from a school. Fourth, the proposal will first be presented to the school board meeting. This is very crucial in ensuring that the school management supported the proposal and encouraged the students to enroll for the program.
Weaknesses
The proposal is lacking in that the seriousness of the cause has not been emphasized. There was a great need to indicate the actual figures (prevalence and incidence) of the disease (Dabelea et al., 2014). This would have ensured that the proposal was supported by the key as well as other stakeholders. In the proposal, it is stated that a community health proposal was developed and aimed at students who were then in middle school system in relation to type 2 diabetes prevention. However, there is no mention of why this was important for this target group. What effects does the disease affect this age group?
The diabetes type 2 community health proposal also lacks in that there is no mention of why prevention is being advocated for. There are other approaches that could have been taken including management, treatment, awareness creation, or control of the disease. However, since the proponents have settled on prevention, it is important to mention why this is the approach they consider more proper (Imperatore et al., 2012). Not only does the proposal fail to point out the significance of the matter to the key stakeholders, the promotional pamphlet is also not convincing. Seeing such a promotional pamphlet, many adolescents who are not aware of the diabetes type 2 concern among the adolescent Navajo Indians will ignore it (Work group for community health and development at the University of Kansas, 2012).
Valid solutions for the weaknesses
The prevalence and incidence of diabetes type 2 among the adolescent Navajo Indians should be highlighted and compared to statistics of other adolescents elsewhere. This would emphasize on the gravity of the matter. It is also important to mention why this target group is important as far as the disease and adolescent Navajo Indians are concerned. The proposal should have elaborated in detail why this age group was particularly of concern
The proponent of the proposal should mention and explain the benefits or advantage of preventing diabetes type 2. This is based on the fact that they could have adopted other approaches. But since they settled on prevention, there is a need to mention how prevention of the disease is useful (Benjamins & Whitman, 2010). The promotional pamphlet should have at least indicated how serious the matter is among these adolescents through a mention of the incidence and prevalence. Moreover, there should be a mention of why prevention is important. This measure would go a long way in ensuring that many adolescents enrolled for the program.
References
Benjamins, M. R., & Whitman, S. (2010). A Culturally Appropriate School Wellness Initiative: Results of a 2-Year Pilot Intervention in 2 Jewish Schools. Journal Of School Health, 80(8), 378-386.
Tran, F., Stone, M., Huang, C. Y., Lloyd, M., Woodhead, H. J., Elliott, K. D. & Craig, M. E. (2014). Population‐based incidence of diabetes in Australian youth aged 10–18 yr: increase in type 1 diabetes but not type 2 diabetes. Pediatric diabetes.
Dabelea, D., Mayer-Davis, E. J., Saydah, S., Imperatore, G., Linder, B., Divers, J. & Hamman, R. F. (2014). Prevalence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents from 2001 to 2009. JAMA, 311(17), 1778-86.
Imperatore, G., Boyle, J. P., Thompson, T. J., Case, D., Dabelea, D., Hamman, R. F. & Standiford, D. (2012). Projections of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Burden in the US Population Aged< 20 Years Through 2050 Dynamic modeling of incidence, mortality, and population growth. Diabetes Care, 35(12), 2515-2520.
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Case study of General Motors that uses technological workforce
Order Instructions:
You are going to write up a case study for a company that uses technology in the workforce. An internet/library search will give you a good idea about companies that have case studies on technology. In terms of the selection of the company, you could use one that is listed throughout the textbook or one from any of the articles you have read. No one is to do Apple, Iphone, Dell, Nike as everyone likes to do them, you will all be competeing with each other. Try to choose a company that no one else will think to do.
When writing a case study analysis, you must first have a good understanding of the case study. Before you begin the steps below, read the case carefully, taking notes all the while. It may be necessary to read the case several times to fully grasp the issues facing the company or industry.
Once you are comfortable with the information, begin the step-by-step instructions offered below to write a case study analysis.
Here’s How:
Investigate and Analyze the Company’s History and Growth. A company’s past can greatly affect the present and future state of the organization. To begin your case study analysis, investigate the company’s founding, critical incidents, structure, and growth.
Identify Strengths and Weaknesses Within the Company. Using the information you gathered in step one, continue your case study analysis by examining and making a list of the value creation functions of the company. For example, the company may be weak in product development, but strong in marketing.
Gather Information on the External Environment. The third step in a case study analysis involves identifying opportunities and threats within the company’s external environment. Special items to note include competition within the industry, bargaining powers, and the threat of substitute products.
Analyze Your Findings. Using the information in steps two and three, you will need to create an evaluation for this portion of your case study analysis. Compare the strengths and weaknesses within the company to the external threats and opportunities. Determine if the company is in a strong competitive position and decide if it can continue at its current pace successfully.
Identify Corporate Level Strategy. To identify a company’s corporate level strategy for your case study analysis, you will need to identify and evaluate the company’s mission, goals, and corporate strategy. Analyze the company’s line of business and its subsidiaries and acquisitions. You will also want to debate the pros and cons of the company strategy.
Identify Business Level Strategy. Thus far, your case study analysis has identified the company’s corporate level strategy. To perform a complete analysis, you will need to identify the company’s business level strategy. (Note: if it is a single business, the corporate strategy and the business level strategy will be the same.) For this part of the case study analysis, you should identify and analyze each company’s competitive strategy, marketing strategy, costs, and general focus.
Analyze Implementations. This portion of the case study analysis requires that you identify and analyze the structure and control systems that the company is using to implement its business strategies. Evaluate organizational change, levels of hierarchy, employee rewards, conflicts, and other issues that are important to the company you are analyzing.
Make Recommendations. The final part of your case study analysis should include your recommendations for the company. Every recommendation you make should be based on and supported by the context of your case study analysis.
SAMPLE ANSWER
General Motors that uses technological workforce
Company history and background
General Motors was founded on September 16, 1908 in Flint, Michigan. It was founded as a holding company for Buick which by that was controlled by William C. Durant. It was co-founded by Charles Stewart Mott who by the time of GM’s inception owned a carriage company. Late 1908, GM acquired Oldsmobile. (General Motors Company (GM) – Clean Technology – Deals and Alliances profile, 2014). In 1909, Durant bought Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland and several other companies. In the same year, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan. In 1910, Durant lost control in GM. This was due to a bankers’ trust that was caused by the large amount of debt taken on its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales. Durant started Chevrolet Motor Car Company through which he controlled major interest in GM. General Motors was re-organized into General Motors Corporation in 1916. In the early 1980s, GM experienced an unprecedented growth during which it employed 349000 workers and operated 150 assembly plants, under the leadership of Alfred P. Sloan (Houghton, 2013).
Over the years, GM has grown to be a big automobile manufacturing company which, together with its partners, has been able to design, build and market cars, trucks and spare parts around the world. The brands include Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Pontiac, Opel, Fleet and Commercial, Vauxhall and Saturn. Moreover, GM provides automobile financing services through its subsidiary, General Motors Financing Company (Essays, UK, 2013). The company sells cars and trucks to daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies and the government. This is either done directly or through a network of dealers that have been established over the years. GM has operations in North America, South America, Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia (Oceania). It has its headquarters in Detroit, USA (Houghton, 2013).
Though GM has grown over the years to enjoy dominance of the auto industry, it has internal factors that have influenced its performance, growth and expansion. It has enjoyed strengths from within and in equal measures has had its share of weaknesses. The strengths include:
Customer Satisfaction that has been brought about by perfect branding
General Motors has in the past produced quality products. This is indicated by its scores in 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index. GM’s Buick and Cadillac brands took the second and third spots in overall customer satisfaction. The GMC brand also appeared in the top 10, sitting in slot number 8 above Toyota and Nissan hence demonstrating a 2.4% increase over the previous year (Klikauker, 2012).
Huge market share depicted by its worldwide presence:
GM has an international presence with factories in Poland, Russia, South Africa, Ecuador, Egypt, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Belgium, China, Colombia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Thailand. Moreover, it has assembly, manufacturing, distribution, office and warehousing operations in 55 other countries. Though GM lost the top slot for global auto sales after 77 years in 2009(Reuters, 2010), it still has the top market share for any American car Company, as reported by “The Wall Street Journal,” leading in both overall sales as well as light truck sales (Klikauker, 2012).
Lower labor costs that have been put in place since 2009
GM has kept labor cost low in most of the world, including foreign markets. In 2009, it cut its white collar labor force by 14%, according to Huffington Post. This effectively reduced overhead for the company and ensured increase in profitability without an actual increase sales or productivity (Klikauker, 2012).
Leaner Operations
When GM came out of bankruptcy in 2009, it had adopted a much leaner operation system. It had cut brands, plants and employees so as to streamline production costs, according to “The Washington Post” with the executive committee being reduced to eight members. This enhanced the company’s efficiency and increased the speed of decision making (Business: Rising from the ashes in Detroit; General Motors’ IPO, 2010).
The following weaknesses have however hindered its operations.
Diminishing Dealer Network: GM has identified more than 1000 dealership markets that are due for closure. It also announced that it would not be renewing its franchise agreements with almost one quarter of its dealership in the U.S. As at December 31 2008, GM had 715 dealerships in Canada and as at May 2009 plans had been put in place for closure of 200 dealerships (Goussak, Webber & Ser, 2012).
Insufficient Liquidity that has negatively affected both Research and Development and relationship with suppliers (Goussak, Webber & Ser, 2012).
Inadequate performance among some Business Segments: In 2008, the GME segment accounted for 21.8% of the total revenues and its revenues decreased by 8.8% to $32,440 million. Other business segments experiencing declines include GMNA which fell by 23.9% to $82,938 million, and GMAP which stood at $12,477 million for the 2008 fiscal year indicating a major decline (Klikauker, 2012).
Threats
Intense Competition: GM is vulnerable to fierce competition from firms like AB Volvo, Bayerische Motoren Werke, Daimler, Fiat Group Automobiles, Ford Motor, Honda, Hyundai Motor, Mazda, Nissan, Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen. Many of these have responded to the financial crisis by adding vehicle enhancements, providing subsidized financing or leasing programs in order to sell more vehicles. They also offer option package discounts, marketing incentives and reducing vehicle prices in certain markets. These actions may have negative effects on GM’s pricing, market share and operating results, particularly on the low end of the market (Research and markets adds report: ‘General Motors Corp. – SWOT framework analysis’, 2010).
Global Recession: Dire predictions for the global economy were realized in 2009(Klikauker, 2012). These resulted in stalled economic growth that stretched into 2010. The decline in the economy came with reduced consumer demand for less fuel efficient vehicles, including full size pick-up trucks and Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) which had been GM’s most profitable products. The decline also resulted in tighter credit markets making it quite hard for customers to finance automobile purchases. The meltdown also resulted in the government of US buying out GM (Klikauker, 2012)
Opportunities
Growth Potential in India and China: There are positive projections for General Motors ventures in China and India. In China, the market for new cars has grown by 14% and was projected to reach $97billion by the end of 2008. (Webb, 2005). Moreover, in India, the market grew by 15.5% in 2008 to a dollar value of $28billion. This is a strong indicator that India will play a bigger role in the projected increase. (Webb, 2005)
Increased Global Truck Market: It is projected that in the coming years there will be steady growth rates. The market volume is also expected to increase. (Asia News Monitor, 2014)
Rising Demand for Hybrid Vehicles: With its hybrid models of Saturn Vue and Aura Hybrids, Chevrolet Malibu and Tahoe Hybrid as well as Cadillac Escalade, the company will move fast to meet this demand. Vehicles market would boost the demand for GM’s products.
Though GM has gone through recession, notwithstanding the economic scars that tainted its reputation, it needs to understand that there is increase in global competitive pressure and realize the significance of it understanding the organizational behavior and dynamic changes to its cultural and ethical environment. GM may not remain competitive if some aspects of its operations are not improved (Groussak, Webber and Ser, 2012)
Corporate Level Strategy
GM has a powerful vision backed by a powerful strategy. It is focused on a single global vision: To design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles. This would in effect power the development of world-class products that are winning in the market place, and is helping to transform business and fortify the balance sheet. This model also creates a self-sustaining cycle of reinvestment that drives continuous improvement in vehicle design, manufacturing discipline, brand, competitive pricing and margins (Groussak, Webber and Ser, 2012)
GM has annuals sales of over 9million vehicles and operations in more than 120 countries. Its business is diversified across products and geographic markets. The company meets local sales and service needs for its retail and fleet customers with a global network of independent dealers. Across the world, GM is a top manufacturer led by diverse portfolio of brands that share core platform efficiencies and are connected by its global reach (Groussak, Webber and Ser, 2012)
GM has equity ownership stakes directly or directly in entities through various regional subsidiaries like GM Korea, Shanghai General Motors Co Ltd, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Company, FAW-GM Light Duty Commercial and SAIC GM Investment Limited (HKJV) (Asia News Monitor, 2014).
Business Level Strategy
Brand Restructuring: GM focuses to restructure Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick. It also plans to either close or sell out brands like Saab, Saturn and Hummer. These actions are based on sales statistics that are lagging in the domestic market (Asia News Monitor, 2014)
Fuel-Efficiency: This has been the demand brought about by effects of global warming and green technology for industries to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Cost cutting: This will be achieved through the reduction of GM brands and models and closure of some dealerships across the world. Cost will also be reduced through salary cuts for employees and executives. (Asia News Monitor, 2014)
Emerging markets: Markets in India and China present GM with the opportunity to expand its brands and become a force to reckon with in these markets. (Asia News Monitor, 2014)
Marketing Strategy: GM needs to re-establish itself as America’s leading brand. Advertisements and commercials must not only promote this position but also emphasize the developments in sustainability and fuel efficiency. (Asia News Monitor, 2014)
Recommendations
General Motors needs to expand its marketing strategy to cover markets in China, India, Europe and the larger American continent. The message of its fuel efficiency cars and better quality should be heard across all its ancient markets.
General Motors also needs to invest more of its resources in Research and Development Centers in African and India. This will help in establishing the need for cars in those regions and also aid in coming up with better designs for such regions and low end customers.
References
Business: Rising from the ashes in Detroit; General Motors’ IPO. (2010, Aug 21). The Economist, 396, 49-50.
Essays, UK. (November 2013). A SWOT Analysis of the General Motors Company Marketing Essay
General Motors Company (GM) – Clean Technology – Deals and Alliances profile. (2014). London: Global Data Ltd.
Goussak, G. W., Webber, J. K., & Ser, E. M. (2012). A CRITICAL NEEDS PLAN FOR GENERAL MOTORS: A CULTURAL PLURALISM APPROACH. Review of Business & Finance Studies, 3(2), 45-53.
Klikauer, T. (2012). A General Motors works council’s response to the capitalist global financial crisis: A case study from Germany. Capital & Class, 36(2), 303-322.
Research and markets adds report: ‘General Motors Corp. – SWOT framework analysis’. (2010). Manufacturing Close – Up
Webb, A. (2005). General Motors plans more choices for china. Automotive News, 79(6144), 21. World: General Motors chief reveals business strategy. (2014, Jan 23). Asia News Monitor
Fixing what’s wrong with General Motors and other U.S. manufacturers; American business concepts issues opinion editorial. (2005, Jun 06). Business Wire
We can write this or a similar paper for you! Simply fill the order form!
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OBJECTIVE:
The assignment is intended to foster the following objectives:
a. Improving your critical thinking and application skills.
b. Identifying various sources of financing and skills management for different stages and types of new ventures.
c. Conducting a brief research and case study analysis on how a new venture acquires and fulfils its business needs and preferences within different stages of its business operation.
d. Combining knowledge from other courses with the new material presented in the course to develop sophisticated analyses and solutions to pursuing business solutions in today’s fast-paced, global, and highly competitive macro environment.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Read the case below and answer ALL questions. Then, select a business franchise (franchisor or franchisee) as a case for analysis
The Malaysian National Franchise Development Blueprint 2012-2016, states that the Malaysian Government intends to increase the number of franchisors from the current number of 492 in 2010 to 650 by the year 2014 and the number of franchisees from 4,838 in 2010 to 6,050 by the year 2014. Meanwhile, the government would like to see the total franchise sales to GDP, to increase from 2.2 percent in 2010 to 3.3 percent by the year 2014. In terms of franchise employment to total national employment, it contributed 0.9 percent in 2010 and this figure is expected to rise to 1.1 percent by the year 2014. Currently, there are more than 268 franchise systems with more than 6,000 franchisees. Hence based on the franchise statistics in Malaysia, the prospect and potential of new business ventures through franchise system is very bright and promising. Nonetheless, it is not without hurdles and challenges. There are a number of issues that potential franchisees and franchisors must consider before venturing into this business.
QUESTIONS:
1. Discuss both qualitative and quantitative assessments from the viewpoints of franchisees and franchisors respectively before they can agree to venture into the franchise business system.
[30 marks]
2. Select a successful business franchise (EITHER A FRANCHISOR OR FRANCHISEE), which has been in the market for more than 5 years. This could be someone you see as an example of how a business venture succeeds sequentially through a franchising system; beginning as a small entity and then growing and expanding successfully. Your analysis should critically discuss whether the reality of practice reflects what is reported in the literature on franchise management. Is it the same or different? If it is different how and why is this so?
[60 marks]
[TOTAL: 90 MARKS]
Note: The grade for this assignment will be substantially influenced by the originality and overall ability of the student to compare, evaluate and analyze the franchise management challenges and opportunities for organizations. Any form of plagiarism and / or lack of proper referencing will result in a substantial mark down or fail result.
ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION:
All assignments must be handed in at the stated time and in the stated form or they will automatically receive a grade zero. It is your responsibility to retain a copy of your assignments should any questions arise later concerning the said assignments.
PRESENTATION (10 marks)
You will deliver an oral presentation (Power Point slide between 8 -10 minutes) at the end of the semester (Seminar 5) highlighting the salient points of your investigation and opinions. This will comprise 10 percent of overall marks for all face to face students. Online students are exempted.
ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES / ASSIGNMENT FORMAT:
• Your assignment should be typed on A4 paper using 12-point Times New Roman and 1.5 spacing.
• Your assignment should NOT exceed 3500 words, not including appendix and reference.
• Your must provide references. References should use the American Psychological Association (APA) format.
• References should include the latest journal/book publication (year 2005 and onwards).
• You are to submit a softcopy of your assignment via email. You must receive acknowledgement email from your facilitator to confirm submission.
• Plagiarism is not acceptable. If you are not sure what is meant by plagiarism, refer to the various websites which discuss this matter, e.g. owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts.
• Plagiarized assignments will receive a ‘Fail’ mark.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Case analysis of franchisee
Introduction
The major economic value of franchising is that it creates self employment and provides more employment opportunities in an economy. Franchising provides an efficient system of distributing goods and services to different levels in the economy. Franchisors provide and facilitate professional business advices to their own franchisees who in return assist in service delivery and consumer identification.
Franchising as a business organization form contributes to business operations and expansion in many countries. The success of franchised business operations has been largely attributed to the strict criteria franchisors use to evaluate, select and recruit franchisees. The other reasons that may contribute to these successes are the franchisor support systems, levels of financial bases and the general relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee. (Frazer & Winzar, 2005)
The qualitative assessments include personal integrity of the potential franchisee, his management and communication skills have to be above average. Financial management, personality and leadership skills must be positively evident to enable a potential franchisee to be recruited. Some franchises like McDonalds insists on hands on management, that’s the franchisee must be able to participate on critical business operations and decision making processes.
Quantitative assessment includes the assessments of the franchisee’s financial capabilities and the ability to achieve the requisite operations standards of the franchisor. The franchisee must be a successful business person and a person who has literally demonstrated some business capabilities and has financial acumen. McDonald’s franchisees recruitment is often rigorous and the selection is very competitive.
The franchisee on the other hand before deciding to invest on a particular franchise must ask several questions on the profitability of the franchise and whether to invest on a new franchise or buy an existing franchise and also find out the reasons why the franchise is being sold out. The terms of the franchisor also matters to the franchisees decision whether to accept or reject the terms.
McDonalds
McDonalds is one of the world’s largest fast food restaurants globally. The hamburger is the basic symbol of McDonald fast food restaurant that serves over sixty eight million customers every day and has presence in over 119 countries globally. McDonald management system is based on the franchise system where most of its sales are in the form of royalties and other fees paid by the franchisees. In the year 2012, McDonalds earned a total profit of $5.5 billion dollars from a total turnover of $27.5 billion dollars. The primary sales of McDonald’s products come from hamburgers, chicken, soft drinks, French fries, cheeseburgers, desserts and milkshakes. And lately salads fish and fruits. McDonalds operates about 15% of the total McDonald’s operations which are wholly owned by McDonalds worldwide. The rest are operated as franchises. (McDonald’s publication, 2012)
In the UK and parts of Ireland, Only a hand full of the restaurants operates as franchises, majority are wholly owned by McDonalds. In the UK, a typical restaurant that may house a McDonald’s facility ranges between £125,000 and £325,000. McDonalds requires an upfront payment of 25% as the value of the unencumbered funds. The rest can be provided through financial assistance as bank loans. McDonalds also charges £30,000 as a franchise fee payable once and a further £5,000 as training fees which is refundable after successful training. The other charges payable by the McDonalds franchisees are mostly the monthly rent based on the business profitability which is about 10-15%, use of McDonald’s brand 5% of sales and McDonald’s marketing 4.5%. The average turnovers on most McDonald’s outlets range from £ 95,000 to £ 200,000 annually in the UK. (MCDONALDS CORP 2013 Annual Report Form 10-K , 2014)
Franchising businesses as spelt out on management books are a little different as the terms of most franchisors are mostly business oriented and they literally take most of the profits from the franchise business operations like in the case of McDonald’s. Their fees account for about 20% of the total sales turnover which is practically most of the net profits from the business operations. The franchisee must carefully analyze the business structure and terms of the franchisor before accepting or rejecting the franchisors offers.
References
Frazer, L. & Winzar, H. (2005) Exits and Expectations: why disappointed franchisees leave. Journal of Business Research 58 (11), pg.1534 – 1542.
A Culminating Performance task to Demonstrate Skills A culminating performance task designed to demonstrate understandings, skills, and dispositions in relation to the big idea essential question. Order Instructions: Develop a narrative that explains a unit of some length in which your students are expected to meet standards by addressing an essential question.
A Culminating Performance task to Demonstrate Skills
Your paper will use the following headings: ? Essential Questions o The big-idea essential question and how it was determined. o The content topical essential questions. ? Performance Task o A culminating performance task designed to demonstrate understandings, skills, and dispositions in relation to the big idea essential question. ? Differentiated Instruction o How you will scaffold instruction to assist your students to learn the content and skills leading to answering the essential question and successfully completing the performance task. ? Standards o How standards are met through this unit. ? Link to Theoretical Framework. o Provide a brief rationale for how this unit is aligned to your own educational philosophy. Please include citations from course materials in support of your work.
Develop a narrative that explains a unit of some length in which your students are expected to meet standards by addressing an essential question. Your paper will use the following headings: ? Essential Questions o The big-idea essential question and how it was determined. o The content topical essential questions. ? Performance Task o A culminating performance task designed to demonstrate understandings, skills, and dispositions in relation to the big idea essential question. ? Differentiated Instruction o How you will scaffold instruction to assist your students to learn the content and skills leading to answering the essential question and successfully completing the performance task. ? Standards o How standards are met through this unit. ? Link to Theoretical Framework. o Provide a brief rationale for how this unit is aligned to your own educational philosophy.
Please include citations from course materials in support of your work.
A Culminating Performance task to Demonstrate Skills Sample Answer
Introduction
Jon Krakauer adopted the 1993 ‘death of an innocent’ article written by Christopher McCandless ‘into the wild.’ McClandless, a small yet active man appeals to many teenagers and young adults. His journey in the novel addresses issues such as how to be accepted into one’s own community and the society at large. In this extensive unit, the story explains how finding one’s identity sometimes conflicts with being a valuable member of our societies. To seek some form of enlightenment, McCandless leaves to find his way in the wild. His spirited risk taking in the story leads to a better understanding of the spirit and nature of America and its literature during the transcendentalist period in time (Krakauer, 2007). The knowledge gained from this unit by the literature review of the nonfictional texts, short stories, significant essays and a variety of poems has helped in the formulation of Essential Questions. These questions relate to the self, society and happiness and they are:
What is success?
How is identity constructed through our values and beliefs?
How is a community essential to happiness?
What is the link between the self and society?
The Literature that was extensively reviewed to assist in the composition of this culminating assessment added an extra appeal to the adventure and survival notions in the story. This essay, therefore, uses the fundamental questions generated in this unit as the basis of the argument. The evidence collected from the literature reviewed assists in the exploration of answers to these questions. This unit has created a compelling investigation of the American spirit, culture, traditions and community. Therefore, the fundamental questions are discussed and the process of how they were determined analyzed. The desired outcomes of the narrative also involve learning outcomes for the students, links to the theoretical framework and evaluation of performance tasks in relation to the content topical issues.
A Culminating Performance task to Demonstrate Skills and Analysis of essential questions
The big-idea primary question in this paper is ‘what is success?’ the problem was resolved by creating a list of goals that an individual aspired to complete before they die. This list had the effect of allowing students to have a chance at reflecting and defining their life goals. After completion of their own bucket lists, the students brainstorm and reflect on them. After critical individual brainstorming, students are allowed to share details of their lists with their fellow classmates and peers. They share ideas, add and remove ideas into their lists as they learn from each other. From these ideas, a primary benchmark of what success entails will be measured and students will be able to answer the principal question of ‘what is success?’
To further look into this question, a comparison of Chris McClandless experience and that of Richard Pine in Stephen King’s story ‘”Survivor Type”’ is made. In this comparison, the extent to which Richard Pine lives up to his name is analyzed. The performance tasks to achieve this comparison involves having the students pre-read the issues about success including issues such as what is success, how is it measured and the key indicators that someone is successful. An analysis to the initial reaction to the story is necessary before other questions to evaluate the degree of success can be asked. These questions would include the definition of failure, what does failure entail and how does one know that they have failed or succeeded. A discussion on whether Richard Pine was successful by his own standards in getting out of poverty, qualifying as a physician and his ability to survive for a time (Spignesi, 2001).
The students can be assisted in learning the content and skills needed in answering the fundamental questions and performance tasks, a plan of desired outcomes consisting of priority standards needs to be made. These measures include analyzing and measuring the merits of each student’s arguments by examining the evidence obtained from the literature review. Meeting this standard, the different author’s own ideas need to be analyzed by the student’s as supported by evidence in the text. The students will also need to draw conclusions about the author’s primary belief’s values and life’s perspectives. For a successful outcome, the students will also demonstrate their familiarity with various forms of American literary periods including the various authors and the differing topics that they engaged in. to answer the essential questions, students also need to analyze the way in which the themes, issues, events and political movements at the particular historical period affect literary works. For proper presentation, the students need to come out with clear and concise ideas, demonstrate competency, develop a proper thesis, cite sources appropriately and draw supported inferences from the works of literature to be able to compete the performance tasks successfully (Mueller, 1996).
A successful evaluation will ensure that students understand that American literature reviewed in this unit seeks to understand the relationship between personal identity and nature. An understanding of the skills and the dispositions in this unit is demonstrated by the setting and pace also shape identity. The literal and metaphorical approaches are also used in relation to answering the big idea essential questions. In answering these questions, the students, therefore, get to be involved in their own journey and are therefore able to understand the process of constructing personal identities (Clayton, 2003). They also develop the ability to synthesize texts around a theme and define and measure the gap between where they are now and where they would be in the future.
To meet the standards required in this unit, it is essential that students choose at least two or three relevant passages that include sentences or paragraphs that relate to the essential questions. For each passage chosen as a reference point, the necessary questions to which the passage relates is selected and the passage number in which it appears recorded. The student will then write a note explaining the thoughts that the passage brings about in regard to a particular primary question that is being answered. These notes provide the evidence and the referencing material to use while constructing a synthesis essay. So, for example, to answer the question about what is success, an extract from Richard Pine’s story about not liking football, but having to play it for the necessary goal of winning an athletic scholarship says a lot about the character and determination of Richard Pine. From the passage, it is evident that he was determined and hardworking to be able to obtain that scholarship.
Educational philosophies focus on the nature of knowledge. The philosophical perspectives in education are perennialism, progressivism, Reconstructionism and essentialism. My own beliefs and my own educational philosophy are tagged on perennialism where the aim of education and acquisition of knowledge is to ensure that students get an understanding about ideas construed in western civilization. Perennialism attempts to teach everlasting ideas and the constant truths about the natural and human world. The fundamental understanding of this theory is that human beings should attain cultural literacy(Lai, 2006). Since human accomplishments are emphasized, great works and literature and art are taught to enforce the understanding of the relationship between nature and identity and understanding of success and what it means to an individual or society are based on the individual’s or society’s unique value depositions. The connections that students make between Richard Pine and McCandless outline universal ideas.
A Culminating Performance task to Demonstrate Skills References
Clayton, S. D. (2003). Identity and the natural environment the psychological significance of nature Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Krakauer, J. (2007). Into the wild New York: Anchor Books.
Lal, B. M. (2006). Educational philosophy New Delhi: Pragun Publications.
Mueller, L. (1996). Alive together: new and selected poems. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Spignesi, S. J. (2001). The essential Stephen King: a ranking of the greatest novels, short stories, movies, and other creations of the world’s most popular writer. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books.
