DB.1

Four Functions of Management

Present and future managers benefit from becoming proficient in the four functions of management (i.e., POLC), as addressed in your reading and learning activities. Address the following questions regarding POLC below.

Describe an example when you have used each of the four functions in either a personal, school, or work experience.

Have you ever used all four functions in a civic, personal, or work experience? Explain.

Which function(s) do you believe you personally need the most additional training in? Explain.

In which of the POLC functions do you believe you are strongest? Why?

JOURNAL

Journal: EBM

You will post a minimum of 250 words in the textbox for this journal in response to the bulleted items listed below. The journal is a private communication that is shared only with your instructor for grading purposes.

Access the textbox by going to the Assignments tab, and choose the Unit 1 Journal Dropbox. When it opens, scroll down to the textbox area.

According to Robbins and Judge (2019) in Chapter 1, a combination of the study of relationships and causes and effects, evidence-based management (EBM), and an individual manager’s intuition should be the basis for decision-making.

Define EBM in your own words.

Explain why EBM is appropriate in this scenario.

Provide an example of what EBM a recruiter might rely on in a hiring situation to make the best decision regarding hiring a leader to create and lead a virtual customer service team. Explain.

After checking your spelling and grammar, post your minimum 250-word response in the Unit 1 Journal textbox on the Assignment tab. Be sure to use 12-point Times New Roman font.

Reference

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational behavior (18th ed.). Pearson.

DB.2

As you read in your text, organizations must consider diversity because the workforce has become increasingly diverse, as have the customers. Read the scenario below and then discuss the bulleted item below concerning diversity issues.

Diversity and Job Satisfaction

Scenario (fictional): Silvan Container Works is a mid-sized organization that is also global. They sell most of their containers internationally, although they are based in the U.S. The company’s containers are made with natural raw materials such as clay, stone, and natural woven fibers to create containers that are safe for a multitude of personal and industrial uses.

They have a customer service department call center that is located in India where the customer service representatives (CSRs) are quadrilingual. At this call center, all of the CSRs’ first language is Hindi. Management required they be native-born citizens with at least 10 years’ customer service experience when they were hired. The CSRs are a close-knit group and share stories with each other regarding their customers between their shifts and during their scheduled breaks in the employee break room. Their biggest complaint has been their lack of control over affecting results or problem resolution for their customers on the job.

Lately there have been excessive complaints logged into the customer relationship management (CRM) system to which all the managers have access. There are customer complaints that the CSRs misunderstand the customers’ concerns and that they demonstrate a lack of empathy.

Discuss the potential problems and opportunities based on the limited information in the scenario and based on your Chapter 2 reading concerning diversity.

DB.3

Although emotions and moods impact on-the-job performance, employees are often chosen for their personality traits. Along with a person’s personality type, the organization’s culture is considered. The company recruiter tries to hire decision-makers they think will fit into the existing company culture. In this discussion, you will consider all three aspects impacting employee hiring and employee effectiveness.

Label the three parts of your response as Part A, Part B, and Part C.

Topic: Emotions, Moods, Traits, and Values:

Part A: Based in the reading, which emotions and moods have you experienced in your past or current job, and how did they impact your performance?

How was affective events theory or trait activation theory (see Chapter 5) involved or not? Explain.

Part B: Characterize the personality of your past or current boss (do not use any names or organization names) using one of the major personality theories presented in your reading.

Part C: According to your reading, how do someone’s values relate to their culture and to organizational outcomes?

DB.4

Topic 1.You looked at motivation theories in the learning activities. Now you will practice applying these theories to real life.

Based on your review of the learning activities, address the topic questions:

Topic 1: Motivation

What are your motivators to work?

If you had to list your motivators in order, what would this look like? Explain.

Do you think that your family members or siblings are motivated by the same motivators and in the same order? Why or why not?

Topic 2: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR involvement by employers affects employee job satisfaction, according to research (Robbins & Judge, 2019). Many job hunters are looking for employers who address the triple bottom line of profit, the consideration of people, and the environment. Do some research on the Internet on socially responsible companies.

Share a company name and the URL that provides evidence of addressing the triple bottom line.

Explain: What, if any expectations does the employer put on employees to contribute to the company’s social responsibility? Are the expectations motivating or not? [Note: The latter may be a guess, but you should justify your statement with the research on this subject from your text in Chapter 3].

Reference

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational behavior (18th ed.). Pearson.

Journal

You will post a minimum of 250 words in the textbox for this journal assignment in response to the bulleted items below. The journal is a private communication that is shared only with your instructor for grading purposes.

Motivation at Didi

Applying motivation theory to the workplace can assist you in motivating others, whether working in your community, working with colleagues, or leading a group or team. In this journal, you will apply motivation concepts to a real-world company leader to look at how motivation affects decision-making.

Look for videos and interviews on the Internet with President Jean Liu of “Didi Chuxing” (referred to as Didi), the world’s largest ride-sharing company (Khan, 2017). Then respond to the following questions with a minimum of 250 words.

Checklist:

Based on your reading and learning activities on motivation (the Motivation Parts 1 and 2 presentations), determine what you think is Jean Liu’s motivation to propel her company Didi to success. Include at least two motivation theories in the response.

Defines the motivation theories.

Explain how the motivation theories are relevant in this scenario.

How does culture impact this president’s decision-making? Provide two specific examples.

After checking your spelling and grammar, post your minimum 250-word response in the Unit 4 Journal textbox on the Assignment tab. Be sure to use 12-point Times New Roman font.

Reference

Khan, S. (2017, November 27).  Exclusive: Didi world’s biggest ride-hailing company, in no hurry for IPO  [Technology section]. The National. http://www.thenational.ae/international

Topic:

You can choose any topic as long as it defines, describes, explains, or demonstrates something. While you might actually persuade your audience by providing information about a topic in an informative speech, the intent of your speech is to inform, not to change behavior or attitudes, which is the intent of a persuasive speech.

Steps for Your Informative Speech

choose topic. Is your speech a definition, description, explanation, or demonstration?

Write a key phrase outline (you will submit this to the assignment dropbox this week when you submit your speech).

Purpose Statement: Include your General Purpose Statement, Specific Purpose Statement, and Central Idea Statement in your Outline.

Introduction with a thesis statement: Tell the audience your topic and a preview of what is to come.

Body with 2–3 main points: Here you will elaborate your main points and define, describe, explain, or demonstrate.

Conclusion: Summarize your thesis/main topic and give a brief review of what you said.

One of PLE’s manufacturing plants supplies various engine components to manufacturers of motorcycles on a Just In Time basis. Planned production capacity for one component is 100 units per shift, and the plant operates one shift per day. Because of fluctuations in customers’ assembly operations, however, demand fluctuates and is historically between 80 and 130 units per day. To maintain sufficient inventory to meet its Just In Time commitments, PLE’s management is considering a policy to run a second shift the next day if inventory falls to 50 or below at the end of a day (after the daily demand is known). For the annual budget-planning process, managers need to know how many additional shifts will be needed. The fundamental equation that governs this process each day is:

ending inventory = beginning inventory + production − demand ending inventory = beginning inventory + production − demand

Develop a spreadsheet model to simulate 260 working days (one year), and count the number of additional shifts that are required. Assume that the initial inventory is 100 units. Use psi functions for all uncertain cells in building your model. Using the number of additional shifts required as the output cell for a Monte Carlo simulation, find the distribution of the number of shifts that the company can expect to need over the next year. Explain and summarize your findings in a report to the plant manager and make a recommendation as to how many shifts to plan in next year’s budget. Upload your Word document AND your Excel worksheet file