Category: Economics

The impact of organizational practices on the implementation of Human Resources decisions.

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• Analyze the impact of organizational practices on the implementation of Human Resources decisions.
• Analyze the relationship between effective Human Resources strategies and organizational outcomes.
• Critique Human Resources initiatives and their influence on effective organizational performance.
• Integrate the Human Resources balanced scorecard to sustain a competitive advantage.
• Appraise the impact of stakeholder preferences on Human Resources strategies.
• Develop a strategic Human Resources plan that aligns to stakeholder preferences, business strategies, and organizational outcomes.
Scenario
You have been hired as the new vice president of HR of a publicly-traded company of your choice. You have been brought into the organization to specifically address the current shortcomings of HR support to the organization and make the necessary adjustments so that HR strategy is aligned to the overall corporate strategy.
One of the first areas in which you need to familiarize yourself with is how well (or not) the current HR strategies support the organization’s mission and goals. Therefore, you will need to analyze the organization’s HR strategies and assess how these HR strategies enable the organization to be successful. For instance:
• How do these HR strategies create competitive advantages?

Analysis of the commodity at the very beginning of Capital.

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Marx puts his analysis of the commodity at the very beginning of Capital. He maintains that commodities are unique objects, the understanding of which requires that we also understand many forms of “value”. Yet the truth about commodities is still difficult to grasp, due to what he calls the “fetishism of commodities.” What is a commodity? What are the different kinds of value that Marx tries to separate from one another, and why are they important? What is the “fetishism of commodities,” what does it seem to conceal, and how can one reveal the truth about the commodity?

Organization Development Basics

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For this assignment, first carefully review the required background materials. Make sure you are highly familiar with the main steps involved in action research and organizational development discussed in the readings. When you are finished reviewing the background materials, take a close look at the scenario in the Case Assignment below.
Action research is the process of inquiry that is used to assist an individual or organization in solving a problem or improving a situation. For each scenario below, think about the reasons why things did not work out well for the company and more specifically, think about action research in terms of developing a plan for action.

Your task for this assignment is to explain what steps the organization should take by reviewing the standard action research and organizational development steps covered in the background materials. Try to assess which key step is missing in the scenario below.
Then write a 4- to 5-page paper using three scholarly sources from the required and optional readings list addressing the following for the scenario below:
The Perils of XYZ Widget Company
Sales have gone down at the XYZ Widget Company and nobody in the organization, including the CEO, seems to know why. They decide to hire you, an organizational development consultant, to do some action research. You and the CEO spend a lot of time discussing how to proceed and create a contract. The contract specifies that you will limit the scope to finding factors that led to the decrease in sales, come up with a plan of action within one month, and answer the following questions using the background data from the scenario below.
Scenario:
XYZ Widget Company has lost 20% of its market share over the past two years resulting in a sales loss of 1.5 million in 2017 and 2 million in 2018 for a total of $3.5 million. Each widget costs the consumer $29.99 to purchase, and the average customer will purchase three widgets annually. Each XYZ widget is produced for $8 dollars and is of higher quality than the competition.
One competitor (Jim’s Widgets) in the widget industry with a similar product has increased market share by 12% due to a lower production cost of $4 per unit and price to the consumer of $9.99.
The CEO of XYZ Widget Company is reluctant to lower prices and has had to eliminate commissions and bonuses of sales employees who exceed goals. In addition, seven of the 21-member sales team were laid off for non-performance of sales goals.
Develop an Action Research Strategy Plan covering the following Action Research Phases in a report to the CEO.
• Data gathering and Diagnosis
• Feedback
• Planning Change
• Intervention
• Evaluation
1. What are the reasons behind the decrease in sales?
2. What actions or strategy (data/sales/changes) should be taken to turn sales around and regain market share?
3. What strategy should be taken to increase employee morale?
4. How long should this strategy take to complete?

• Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
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Business or government failed to protect consumers.

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Share a recent or current event in which a business or government failed to protect consumers. What were the failures? Who were the victims? What can or could be done to prevent such failures in the future? Do your findings change the way you will support the company in the future?
You are encouraged to share resources that introduce or illuminate the event.

Examples of ways that the humanities influence creative expression.

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Create a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation by performing the following:
• Provide eight examples of ways that the humanities influence creative expression.
• Cover four or more branches of the humanities (i.e., not all examples of musicians or authors).
• Each example should have its own slide with a clear, appropriate image and a brief explanation of how that example has been impacted by humanities (example: a slide featuring an image representing the movie Lord of the Rings with a sentence stating “The film LOTR incorporates aspects of the human condition such as discrimination, despair, courage, the feeling of triumph, happiness, internal mental scarring, and loss.”).
• Include a title slide.
• Include a reference slide with links to your resources.
• Proofread your work for spelling and grammar.

An Introduction to Sociology

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Summarize conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and structural functionalism. Explain why you are in college based on each of the three theoretical perspectives. Explain which of the three theoretical perspectives best describes why you are pursuing higher education. (CSLO2, USLO 1.3)
Explain the sociological imagination (SI) and what it means to reflect upon one’s life using the sociological imagination. Describe a recent situation in which societal pressures influenced a choice you made. Using your sociological imagination, explain how those societal pressures may have been different for your parents and grandparents when they were your age? (CSLO2, USLO 1.1)
Chapter 2: Sociological Research

What type of data do surveys gather? For what topics would they be the best research method? What drawbacks might you expect to encounter when using them? Think of a recent survey you have completed and list some of the ways you could improve it. (CSLO 3, USLO 1.8).
Would you willingly participate in a sociological study, like the Stanford Prison Experiment, that could potentially put your health and safety at risk, but had the potential to help thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people? Explain the code of ethics for social research and defend if you think it is too restrictive and would prevent quality social research? (CSLO 3, USLO 1.9)

Organization/workplace

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Review the Resources and identify one change that you believe is called for in your organization/workplace.
This may be a change necessary to effectively address one or more of the issues you addressed in the Workplace Environment Assessment you submitted in Module 4. It may also be a change in response to something not addressed in your previous efforts. It may be beneficial to discuss your ideas with your organizational leadership and/or colleagues to help identify and vet these ideas.
Reflect on how you might implement this change and how you might communicate this change to organizational leadership.
The Assignment (5-6-minute narrated PowerPoint presentation):

Change Implementation and Management Plan

Create a 5- or 6-slide narrated PowerPoint that presents a comprehensive plan to implement changes you propose.

Your narrated presentation should be 5–6 minutes in length.

Your Change Implementation and Management Plan should include the following:

An executive summary of the issues that are currently affecting your organization/workplace (This can include the work you completed in your Workplace Environment Assessment previously submitted, if relevant.)
A description of the change being proposed
Justifications for the change, including why addressing it will have a positive impact on your organization/workplace
Details about the type and scope of the proposed change
Identification of the stakeholders impacted by the change
Identification of a change management team (by title/role)
A plan for communicating the change you propose
A description of risk mitigation plans you would recommend to address the risks anticipated by the change you propose