Category: Arts

Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:
After reviewing the story, conduct research online into the various possibilities for analyzing and approaching the system documentation problems that are presented, and propose possible solutions.
Before you start this assignment, please read the story entitled Harold’s Hardware Store. This can be found in the OSI and TCP/IP Models MUSE. This can also be found in your text materials for Week 2.
This is a direct link to Harold’s Hardware Store. After reading the story, complete the following:
• Discuss the specific recommendations that you would make based on your personal experience and research.
• Provide specific examples of how you would address the communication problems that are mentioned in the story and how your problem-solving technique could be implemented for the company that was mentioned in the story.
• How can you apply the lessons that you learned from the story to your own retail store problem?
• Provide feedback on the recommendations that your classmates made.
Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:
• What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the suggested techniques for solving the problem?
• What clarification do you need regarding the method for solving the problem?
• What differences or similarities do you see between your problem-solving technique and that of other classmates?

Scenario
Wells Fargo was the darling of the banking industry, with some of the highest returns on
equity in the sector and a soaring stock price. Top management touted the company’s
lead in “cross-selling”: the sale of additional products to existing customers. “Eight is
great,” as in eight Wells Fargo products for every customer, was CEO John Stumpf’s
mantra.
In September 2016, Wells Fargo announced that it was paying $185 million in fines for
the creation of over 2 million unauthorized customer accounts. It soon came to light that
the pressure on employees to hit sales quotas was immense: hourly tracking, pressure
from supervisors to engage in unethical behavior, and a compensation system based
heavily on bonuses.
Wells Fargo also confirmed that it had fired over 5,300 employees over the past few
years related to shady sales practices. CEO John Stumpf claimed that the scandal was
the result of a few bad apples who did not honor the company’s values and that there
were no incentives to commit unethical behavior. The board initially stood behind the
CEO, but soon after received his resignation and “clawed back” millions of dollars in his
compensation.
Further reporting found more troubling information. Many employees had quit under the
immense pressure to engage in unethical sales practices, and some were even fired for
reporting misconduct through the company’s ethics hotline. Senior leadership was aware
of these aggressive sales practices as far back as 2004, with incidents as far back as
2002 identified.
The Board of Directors commissioned an independent investigation that identified
cultural, structural, and leadership issues as root causes of the improper sales practices.
The report cites the wayward sales culture and performance management system; the
decentralized corporate structure that gave too much autonomy to the division’s leaders;
and the unwillingness of leadership to evaluate the sales model, given its longtime
success for the company.