Embry
BUSW500 Module 2.4 Discussion latest 2016 July
2.4 – Discussion: Country Research – Traditional American
Business vs. Business in Another Country
77 unread replies.9494 replies.
There are many videos and websites identifying cultural
differences relevant to global business. Watch the following video on how
different cultures view punctuality.
Culture Shock: Punctuality (BBC Report on time keeping and
punctuality in different cultures.)
Duration – 4:15
Note: For this discussion you must choose a country that has
not yet been chosen and listed in this discussion area.
Think of a country you are familiar with, or wish to become
familiar with, and view the discussion area to determine if your country has
already been chosen. If it has not been chosen, you will need to post your
Title and Country to “claim” your country of choice. Follow these directions:
In this discussion, begin your post with a subject that
includes the following:
Title: Country
1. Once you claim your country, conduct Internet research on
what differences may exist between so-called traditional American business and
doing business in the country you choose.
2. Write a 2-3 paragraph discussion entry with the current
APA citations and identify the cultural dimensions of your country. Include the
following elements in your discussion entry:
Identify the cultural dimensions of the country of choice
using the Project GLOBE article or other internet tools and compare those
dimensions with traditional American culture. Do you foresee any conflicts?
How would American business best expand to the country you
chose?
What specific cultural, social, or professional conflicts to
you foresee and how would you remedy them?
3. Return to your original post and reply to it. Update your
post with your information.
4. Choose two of your classmate’s discussion threads and
post insightful comments about their information.
An example discussion post is located herePreview the
documentView in a new window. Students are encouraged to use the Cultural
Comparison tool found here (Links to an external site.) (please cite properly).
Review the Discussion Rubric by selecting the Gear icon and then “Show Rubric”. It will
assist you in creating effective posts and will be used to evaluate the
activity.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 3.2 Discussion latest 2016 July
3.2 – Discussion: Managerial Roles
14 14 unread replies. 86 86 replies.
Mintzberg on Managing
Duration – 10:18
Henry Mintzberg is a management education guru best known
for his categorization of managerial roles. Watch Mintzberg on Managing to
learn more about the evolution of management education from Mintzberg’s
perspective. Then, read Rounding Out the Manager’s Job (Links to an external
site.) to learn more about managerial roles and how those roles cannot reside
in a vacuum. Mintzberg over the course of 160 articles and 16 books has proven
to most that management is a practice and that management education must build
on practice to be of any real value.
With this in mind, think about a recent manager. Without
naming names, discuss how this manager managed using Mintzberg’s managerial
roles as a framework and whether or not you feel this manager was “well
rounded” based on the preceding article. Explain how this manager could improve
and become more “well rounded”. Also include what this manager did well.
Include observations about the managerial environment. Did this manager face
any organizational barriers to success? Did the organization’s culture
facilitate successful management?
Please begin your discussion with 2-3 substantive paragraphs
connecting your thoughts to the material you just read. Then, comment on the
experiences and observations of two other students
Note: If you need a distraction, read the online version of
Mintzberg’s hilarious opinion of aviation in his work titled The Flying Circus.
(Links to an external site.) This is not a class requirement, but it’s quite
entertaining.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 4.3 Discussion latest 2016 July
4.3 – Discussion: Managerial Decisions Making
35 35 unread replies. 76 76 replies.
Herbert Simon is often viewed as one of the most famous
economists of the late 20th century. He taught at Carnegie Mellon University
and earned a Nobel Prize for his work on decision making. He put forth the idea
that decisions made by managers are generally sub-optimal. Managers, due to
time constraints, resource limitations, external pressures, etc. often engage
in what Simon calls “satisficing”. Here, a decision is made that meets the
decisional criteria but the decision is not necessarily optimal. The term
satisficing comes from satisfy and suffice blended together. Furthermore, Simon
introduced the term “bounded rationality” to suggest that we, as managers,
cannot conceivably process all available information due to
time and cognitive limitations. Thus, there are boundaries on what we can
rationally take in and use.
Of course it must be noted that Simon was born in 1916 and
died in 2001 at age 85. Since then, the computer age has changed how we make
decisions to some extent. Quick reference dashboards, balanced score cards,
quality metrics, performance metrics, and the likes have enabled us to engage
in Evidence-based Management and data-driven decision making. Read Practical
Wisdom in Management Development (Links to an external site.) an article on
decision making.
*Note – Log into ERNIE in order to access the article.
Herbert Simon
Duration – 3:44
Although introduced decades ago, Simon’s concept of
Satisficing and Bounded Rationality holds true. In fact, today’s information
age may even make decision making more difficult! Other issues are a variety of
heuristics people use in their decision making. These issues were brought to
the fore front by the work of Daniel Kahneman (Nobel prize winner in 2002) and
Amos Tversky. A good simple summary of heuristics and their effect on decision
making is provided in this video (6:33).
I want to learn more about pilot fatigue. I Google “pilot
fatigue”. In .33 seconds, Google returned 13,200,000 results.For example:
I want to purchase a new house in my new zip code. I go to
Zillow.com and learn that in .20 seconds it returned 427 homes for sale that
meet my criteria. I have 2 weeks to purchase.
I need to purchase chairs for my new office. I go to
Amazon.com and search for “desk chair” and in .42 seconds have 202,155 to
choose from.
After reading the scenarios provided in Activity 4.3, how do
bounded rationality, satisficing and heuristics apply? Join the discussion and
address the following:
When making decisions that involve money, what steps do you
take to make sure you are making a good decision? Use an example or two.
When using sources of information to make a decision, how do
you know the information is accurate, relevant, and comprehensive (e.g., think
about customer reviews as one tool to make purchasing decisions online)? Use an
example or two.
Managers are often blamed when poor decisions are made. Is
there a difference between a bad decision (error) and a bad decision born from
insufficient information or satisficing? Use an example or two from your work
experience where a bad decision was made that could have been reasonable at the
time but still turned out to be problematic. You may also use examples of good
decisions that were made and how management arrived at an evidence-based
conclusion.
Please begin with three substantive paragraphs (one for each
question) connecting your thoughts to the material you just read. Then, comment
on the experiences and observations of two other students.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 5.2 Discussion latest 2016 July
5.2 – Discussion: Managerial Problem
4040 unread replies.8282 replies.
The scientific method is an organized way to reach
conclusions that avoids relying on unscientific observations (e.g., anecdotes,
hearsay, propaganda, storytelling, etc.). With this in mind, think about a
business problem within your present organization or a managerial problem that
you are interested in solving. The goal here is not to solve the problem, but
use the scientific method to approach the problem in an orderly way.
Capstone Advice (for students in a degree program that
require a capstone project such as the MSM): Students will be required to
complete a Capstone and address a managerial problem at the end of this degree
program. It’s best to begin thinking about this process now. To leverage this
course fully, use this activity to begin thinking about a managerial problem
that may become the topic of your Capstone. For those of you in degree programs
that do not require a capstone project (i.e. MBAA) you will have other smaller
research papers and projects that will benefit from the information presented
in this module.
A shortened version of the topic or problem should become
the title of your Discussion Board post. You may address a managerial problem,
or research other business related topics. You may choose something you are
personally familiar with or simply curious about. (Note: the topic selected
will be used for Activity 5.3, 6.X, 7.X, 8.X and 9.X.)
Below are a few topic examples:
1. What role
does salary play in the retention of mid-level managers?
Explanation: This is a proposition that needs to be turned
into a testable hypothesis. A survey could be used to gather data on salary
levels and the desire to remain with the organization. These findings could be
correlated (keep in mind correlation does not imply causation) to determine if
there is a linkage between salary and retention. The literature review will
show what we already know about this topic.
2. Does the
time-in-chair work model (e.g., 9am – 5pm) have an effect on worker
productivity when compared the deadline-based (e.g., Complete XYZ by this date)
work model when performing the same task?
Explanation: This is a proposition. Once a specific task is
chosen, a hypothesis can be created using that representative task. An
experiment comparing two groups, one using each of the models, on productivity
measured by task completion would be the best way to test this hypothesis. The
literature review should uncover many existing theories on the nature of work
and productivity.
3. Does the
millennial generation perceive command-and-control leadership as incompatible
with their generational values?
Explanation: This is potentially a new theory that needs to
be tested if it has not been done already. The construct generational values
would need to be better defined. A qualitative method such as interviews may
work best to dialogue with millennials about different scenarios that use
different leadership styles. A survey could also be used where millennials
agree or disagree with certain leadership statements. The literature review
will help show how to best test this theory since others have used similar
methods to test similar theories.
Once you have a topic, create 1-2 substantive paragraphs per
section (a total of 3-6 paragraphs):
1. Provide a
brief background of the problem or area of research and the organizational
setting or context. Be descriptive.
2. Why is
solving this problem or conducting this research important to management and
the organization?
3. How can
other organizations or others within your organization benefit from your
research?
Then, read and comment on the ideas of two other students.
These comments should include high-level advice on the feasibility of the idea
along with low-level advice on how to conduct the research and solve the
problem.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 7.3 & 7.5 Discussions latest 2016 July
Module 7.3
7.3 – Discussion: BLS Data Review
30 30 unread replies. 66 66 replies.
Data sorting and filtering and basic data analysis are
important ways for you to gather and process data so that useful information
can be generated. Attached is an Excel spreadsheet containing Bureau of Labor
dataPreview the documentView in a new window for mean salary and number of
employment positions available based on a particular occupation code. In
addition, the data is sorted by state.
From this data, extract the following information:
Think about the state you wish to work in. Create table or
tab in the worksheet of all of the occupations in your state of choice that
have the word “manage”* in the Occupational Title field. You’ve now created a
subset of the original data set from which additional analysis can be made.
*The term managerial positions will be defined as any
position with the word “manage” in the title. The reason the word “manage”
should be used as a filter is that this will include occupations with the word
manager or management in the title.
grap.jpgAnswer the following questions using the data subset
you created:
What is the average salary for your chosen state of all
managerial positions?
How many total managerial positions are available in your
state?
What percentage of the total number of employment positions
in your state are managerial positions? ***Hint: You will need to refer back to
all of the positions in your state to calculate this.
What does this information mean to you as a prospective job
seeker in this state looking for a managerial position?
Note: Please do not just answer the questions in the
Discussion Board. You must show your work in Excel and upload an Excel
worksheet or some form of spreadsheet as an attachment to receive credit for
this activity. Your Discussion Board post should contain the summary data from
the questions to be answered.
Then, read and comment on two of your classmates summaries.
Module 7.5
7.5 – Discussion: Survey Design
25 25 unread replies. 102 102 replies.
NOTE: This activity
requires you to create a survey and take your classmates surveys. Surveys and
links were posted during module 6 (items 1 through 4); the remaining items are
completed in Module 7.
Complete following
1. Access surveymonkey (Links to an external site.) to
create a survey.
2. If you do not have an account already, select the Sign up
FREE option located to the right side of the webpage. Do not purchase anything!
3. Create a 5-10 question survey on one of the following
topics based on your last name.
Note: With a free account you will be limited to designing a
10 question survey using a variety of quantitative and qualitative question
types. You will not be able to download the data to use in Excel, but you will
be able to generate a PDF of your data.
Group 1: If your last name begins with the letters A – H
Your boss has asked that you create a survey to determine
how satisfied customers of your branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
are when obtaining/updating a driver’s license, registering a new/used vehicle,
or obtaining a title transfer or replacement title. The goal of the survey is
to determine what problems may exist and how the DMV can improve customer
service. Your boss prefers that you use a Likert-type scale in addition to
write-in questions to capture the true nature of customer feelings.
Respondents: Respond based on your last experience with the
DMV in your area.
Group 2: If your last name begins with the letters I – Q
You work for a large manufacturer of consumer electronics
(e.g., televisions). Due to some recent returns where the product was damaged
in shipping, your company has chosen to improve the packaging so that it a) is
easier to open and b) provides better protection from damage. Your goal is to
survey people who recently purchased this large, consumer electronic device and
see what type of experience they had with the new packaging and whether or not
it was easy to open and the product was damage free. Since you have the
consumer’s attention, it may be a good time to briefly inquire about their
purchase experience as well.
Respondents: Respond based on your last electronics
purchase.
Group 3: If your last name begins with the letters R – Z
You are the sales manager for a car dealership. You have
concerns over the tactics that your salespeople are using to obtain sales
although you are pleased with the sales numbers. The mission of your dealership
is to provide honest advice, fair prices, and a low pressure, hassle free sales
experience. You need to survey customers who recently purchased a vehicle to
see if in fact your sales team is living up to the mission of your dealership.
It’s also important to know the Net Promoter Score of the dealership. (Hint:
Google – Net Promoter Score to learn more.)
Respondents: Respond based on your last car buying
experience.
4. Post your survey link to the Discussion Board.
5. Take 6 surveys created by your classmates utilizing the
advice for survey takers.
6. Reply to 2 survey link posts with:
A Critique of whether or not you think their survey achieved
the objective.
Comments about the look and feel of their survey.
Any suggestions for improvement based on survey objective.
7. The goal here is to critically analyze the work of others
to make sure the survey is well constructed. Finally, take a look at the
results of your own survey. View the Analyzing Your Questionnaire below to
learn how to interpret survey results. Did the respondents answer the questions
asked? Had 100 or more people taken the survey, could you have answered your
research question or addressed your hypothesis? There is an entire science
dedicated to asking questions and how to do so properly. Following best
practices ensures both a reliable and valid survey instrument that can generate
useful data.
Analyzing Your Questionnaire (Links to an external site.)
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Embry
BUSW500 Module 1.2 Library Basic
Training Assignment latest 2016 July
This
library-sponsored course was designed to introduce you to the capabilities and
services available at the Hunt Library. For you to fully understand how the
Hunt Library can guide you in your business research, you must first complete a
Library Basic Training (Links to an external site.) assessment. You must pass
the brief quiz at the end of the tutorials to obtain a certificate of
completion.
Save your
certificate page with the naming convention: Lastname_Lib_Basic_Training,
(e.g., Smith_Lib_Basic_Training) and submit.
Note: The
Hunt Library Basic Training is not compatible with devices that are not capable
of running Flash.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 1.4 Evaluating Sources Training Assignment latest 2016 July
The Evaluating Resources (Links to an external site.)
training was designed to introduce you to more specific ways with the Hunt
Library to find scholarly information and how to evaluate those articles found.
You must pass the brief quiz at the end of the training to obtain a certificate
of completion.
Save your certificate page with the naming convention:
Lastname_Eval_Source_Training, (e.g., Smith_Lib_Basic_Training) and submit.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 2.6 Annotated Bibliography Assignment latest 2016 July
Using the Hunt Library (Links to an external site.) and
EagleSearch, search for articles on Evidence-Based Management (introduced in
Module 1) or Stakeholder Theory versus Shareholder Theory (introduced in Module
2). Articles should discuss the topic you choose. The goal is to search for 8
articles published within the last 5 years and then choose 4 articles from
which to create an annotated bibliography. Do not choose the first 4 articles
you come across; make sure they are articles that you feel contribute to your
topic
The annotated bibliography should include an APA citation
and approximately 2-3 paragraphs of text evaluating the content of the article,
its relative value as a scholarly contribution, the accuracy of the article,
the quality of the sources use to compose the article, and any limitations of
the article’s findings. Repeat this process for each of the 4 chosen articles.
Additionally, you should provide the APA formatted citations for the articles
not included in your annotated bibliography.
The following links will provide more information on how to
construct an annotated bibliography and several samples. Make sure the example
you reference is in the current APA format.
Annotated Bibliographies (Links to an external site.)
Annotated Bibliography Samples (Links to an external site.)
Note: If you need assistance with the Hunt Library, please
Ask a Librarian (Links to an external site.).
Prior to submitting your assignment, please use the
following naming convention for your file: Lastname_Activityname (e.g.
Smith_EBM_Bibliography).
Please review the Project/Activity Rubric below. It will be
used to evaluate this assignment.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 4.2 Reading Financial Statements Assignment latest 2016 July
Note: All Embry-Riddle students have access to Lynda.com.
This service provides short training videos on software, hardware, managerial
topics, and other short courses. These courses are extremely informative and
often are used by the industry. In addition, these courses are a great way to
learn new technology and/or computer skills. While only several Lynda.com
courses will be used in this course to illustrate certain points, you are
encouraged to take advantage of this free service provided by Embry-Riddle. To
access Lynda.com, you must login to ERNIE, select the Software tab at the top
right of the screen, and choose the Lynda.com icon. You will not have free
access to this service from Lynda.com directly. YOU MUST go through ERNIE.
graph.jpgWatch the following video and download the Exercise
Files to follow along. This video walks you through the four items that make up
a financial statement and discusses ways to interpret financial data.
To access the video:
Access Lynda.com.
Once you are in Lynda.com, search for “Financial Literacy:
Reading Financial Reports” by Rudolph Rosenberg.
View the video and follow along with the exercise files.
Upload the completion certificate as a deliverable for this
activity.
***To access the completion certificate, in Lynda.com, click
on My Courses at the top right and then Certificates of Completion. Select the
certificate of completion for the proper course, open the certificate, and at
the top left choose Save as PDF. Do not forget to attach your PDF certificate
for submission.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 5.3 Create a Topic Annotated Bibliography Assignment latest 2016
July
Using the Hunt Library (Links to
an external site.) and EagleSearch, search for articles on your chosen topic in
the previous activity. The goal is to search for 8 articles published within
the last 5 years and then choose 4 articles from which to create an annotated
bibliography. Do not choose the first 4 articles you come across; make sure
they are articles that you feel contribute to the topic you chose.
The annotated bibliography should
include an APA citation and approximately 2-3 paragraphs of text evaluating the
content of the article, its relative value as a scholarly contribution, the
accuracy of the article, and the quality of the sources use to compose the
article, and any limitations of the article’s findings. Repeat this process for
each of the 4 chosen articles.
The following links will provide
more information on how to construct an annotated bibliography and several
samples. Make sure the example you reference is in APA format.
Annotated Bibliographies (Links
to an external site.)
Annotated Bibliography Samples
(Links to an external site.)
Note: If you need assistance with
the Hunt Library, please Ask A Librarian (Links to an external site.).
Prior to submitting your
assignment, please use the following naming convention for your file:
Lastname_Activityname (e.g. Smith_Annotated_Bibliography).
Please review the
Project/Activity Rubric below. It will be used to evaluate this assignment.
Embry BUSW500 Module 6.5 Research Proposal Outline Assignment latest
2016 July
The textbook provides a good model for defining a problem and
working towards a solution. Apply the 6-step model in Chapter 6 of the textbook
to your research topic fromActivity 5.3.
1. Understand the situation – Identify key
symptoms.
2. Identify the problems from the symptoms.
3. Write managerial decision statement and
corresponding research objectives.
4. Determine the unit of analysis.
5. Determine relevant variables.
6. Write research questions and/or research
hypothesis.
Submit a 1-3 page outline using a minimum of one robust
paragraph per step in the model. Focus on clearly telling the reader how you
would approach this problem. Be as detailed as possible without being
wordy. Err on the side of specifics as opposed to generalizations. If you
do not have access to a certain parcel of information, you may create portions
of the scenario as needed. Be as realistic as possible.
Review the Project/Activity Rubric below. It will be used to
evaluate this activity.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 7.2 Managing and Analyzing Data Assignment latest 2016 July
Note: All Embry-Riddle students have access to Lynda.com.
This service provides short training videos on software, hardware, managerial
topics, and other short courses. These courses are extremely informative and
often used in industry. In addition, these courses are a great way to learn new
technology or computer skills. Several Lynda.com courses will be used to
illustrate certain points and students are encouraged to take advantage of this
free service provided by Embry-Riddle.
Watch the following video and download the Exercise Files to
follow along. This video walks through the process of managing large volumes of
data in Excel and shows how to turn data into Information by sorting,
filtering, and using basic Excel formulas to automatically generate results. (Note: there may be times in your career
where Excel will not be able to handle your data file. This actually occurs
rather frequently for those analyzing stock market data, large firms analyzing
consumer credit risk (think about how big a file could be for MasterCard), and
other common phenomena that generate large amounts of data. Using this software
(SPSS, STATA, SAS, and others) is beyond the scope of this course but you
should at least be aware there are software packages available for very large
data sets.
You must complete the exercise files at the end of the video
in order to obtain a certificate of completion. Please follow the steps to
complete the activity and save your certificate for submission to your
instructor.
To access the video, follow these steps.
Access Lynda.com.
Once you are in Lynda.com, search for “Managing and
Analyzing Data in Excel” by Dennis Taylor*
View the video and follow along with the exercise files.
To access the completion certificate, in Lynda.com, select
My Courses at the top right and then Certificates of Completion. Click on the
certificate of completion for the proper course, open the certificate, and at
the top left choose Save as PDF
Save your completion certificate with the naming convention:
Lastname_Manage_Analyze_Data and submit.
* For those who have never used Excel before, feel free to
watch the Excel 2010 Essentials course to learn the basics of this software.
Embry
BUSW500 Module 8.2 Frequencies and Histograms Assignment latest 2016 July
Note: Before you begin this activity, you will need to load
the free Data Analysis Toolkit. This is an add-on built into Excel. Depending
on which version of Excel you have, the steps differ slightly. View this
tutorial (Links to an external site.) for details. (or go re-watch the video in
Module 7 demonstrating how to add the Data Analysis Toolkit to Excel.) You do
not need to download or pay for anything, just activate this included add-on in
MS-Excel.
Frequency information is a great way to summarize data. In
essence, you create bins with ranges and using a Histogram to show how many
data points fit within each bin. An example of when this type of data is useful
is viewing organizational salary structures and how staff members earn certain
salary ranges. Save the following MS-Excel worksheetPreview the documentView in
a new window (.xls) to your local computer and open the worksheet in MS-Excel
or equivalent.
In this exercise, you will determine the salary range
distribution of all occupations within the state you chose. Using the Bureau of
Labor Summary Statistics create a histogram by doing the following:
Choose a single state you would like to live in (e.g.,
family there, etc.). Filter the data to show only that state.
Proof the data in the Annual Mean Wage column and make sure
that only numerals are present. If a * or # is present, delete that value and
leave that cell blank. A histogram cannot include non-numerical data in Excel.
Create the bin ranges to the right of the data. See the
example. Use the bin ranges present in the example.
Click on Data Analysis in the Data tab. If this toolkit is
not present, the Data Analysis Toolkit may not have been properly installed.
tool_bar(1).png
Select Histogram.
Enter the input range. Since you have filtered the data, you
cannot simply select the Annual Mean Wage column. You must select the first and
drag to the last data point.
Enter the bin range. Select the range that includes the bins
you wish to create. You should have bins already in your worksheet from Step
#3.
Enter the output range. This is where you want your
histogram and frequency data to appear.
Click OK.
Here is an example for creating histograms in Excel. Another resource is provided below for
assistance.
(Note: The example does not edit chart titles, axis titles
etc. This example simple creates a
histogram; for you projects you may want to make the necessary edits to any
charts you create.)
What does this data
tell you? Answer the following questions:
Is the data normally distributed, skewed right, or skewed
left? What does that mean? For the data used does it make sense?
What does the histogram tell you about the “middle class” in
the state you chose?
What does the histogram tell you about the income
distribution in that state?
See the following exampleView in a new window (.xls). This
is just one of several ways to complete this activity. It’s okay if your
deliverable looks slightly different. There are many chart formats to choose
from. Create what makes sense to you and what you find visually appealing.
Note: This example
worksheet is locked and c
