Week 1 discussion
Actions for Personality Traits and Personality Tests
Personality Traits
One area of controversy is how well you can accurately
assess the personalities of employees or potential employees. One popular way is through various
questionnaires.
For your first post, give the following information:.
How would you rate yourself on each of the Big Five
personality traits based on only the description of the trait? Would your friends agree with your
self-ratings?
After your own self-ratings, do a word search in Google or
other search engines on “big five personality test” and find an
online personality test that will tell you how you rate on the Big Five
dimensions. Take the test, and compare
your results with your initial self-ratings.
How do you feel about the personality test you took? Was it accurate, or
not very helpful? Also, provide the link
to the test you found in case any of your classmates want to use it.
For your second and third posts, compare your results with
those of your classmates, and try to find a classmate with opposite traits as
you as well as one with very similar traits.
Additional Key Elements of the Assignment:
Your Initial Post should occur in a timely manner (by the
third day of the module for full timeliness points). Include the original questions along with
your initial, informative post. Support
your post with information from at least one reference and provide the complete
source information (so that your peers can find the article if they wish). Bring in your own personal experiences, as
applicable.
Your Subsequent Posts: Read through responses by peers and
post responses to at least two classmates’ posts. Bring in ideas/comments and/or
research not mentioned yet.
Remember—To receive full credit in this forum, you need to
post a minimum of three quality posts (your own initial post, and responses to
two classmates). Only one outside source is needed (in the initial post). But
in any post, if you borrow ideas/information from other authors, give them
credit for their work.
Week 2 discussion
Hierarchy of Needs
Based on what you learned about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,
which need (or needs) in the hierarchy are most important for you at this time
for your career?
Once you answered 1 above, do a word search on “hierarchy of
needs test” and find an online survey that measures your hierarchy of needs.
Report what you found. Were the results surprising, or what you initially
suspected? Also, provide the link to the test you found in case any of your
classmates want to use it.
Compare and contrast your results with those of your
classmates. Did your classmates with the similar personal traits in the Module
1 discussion also have similar hierarchy of needs?
Additional Key Elements of the Assignment:
Your Initial Post should occur in a timely manner (by the
third day of the module for full timeliness points). Include the original questions along with
your initial, informative post. Support
your post with information from at least one reference and provide the complete
source information (so that your peers can find the article if they wish). Bring in your own personal experiences, as
applicable.
Your Subsequent Posts: Read through responses by peers and
post responses to at least two classmates’ posts. Bring in ideas/comments and/or
research not mentioned yet.
Remember—To receive full credit in this forum, you need to
post a minimum of three quality posts (your own initial post, and responses to
two classmates). Only one outside source is needed (in the initial post). But
in any post, if you borrow ideas/information from other authors, give them
credit for their work.
Week 3 discussion
Groups and Teams
First explain whether or not you think you are a team player
or more someone who works better alone. After your own self-rating, go online
and do a search on terms such as “team player quiz” or “team player
questionnaire.” Report your results and compare with your initial self-ratings.
Also, provide the link to the test you found in case any of your classmates
want to use it.
Finally, take a look at the Modules 1-2 discussions and the
responses from your classmates and assess whether this class has a diverse
variety of different personalities and other characteristics, or if you think
your classmates generally have similar characteristics. If you and your classmates
were all to work at a company for the same manager, do you think this manager
would have any easy or hard time managing this group?
Additional Key Elements of the Assignment:
Your Initial Post should occur in a timely manner (by the
third day of the module for full timeliness points). Include the original questions along with
your initial, informative post. Support
your post with information from at least one reference and provide the complete
source information (so that your peers can find the article if they wish). Bring in your own personal experiences, as
applicable.
Your Subsequent Posts: Read through responses by peers and
post responses to at least two classmates’ posts. Bring in ideas/comments and/or
research not mentioned yet.
Remember—To receive full credit in this forum, you need to
post a minimum of three quality posts (your own initial post, and responses to
two classmates). Only one outside source is needed (in the initial post). But
in any post, if you borrow ideas/information from other authors, give them
credit for their work.
Week 4 discussion
Our Module 4 Discussion is similar to Part 1 of the SLP—how
we rate our organization along the following dimensions: detail-oriented,
team-oriented, innovative, aggressive, outcome-oriented, and people-oriented.
For Discussion:
Before answering the Discussion 4 question, dive into the
Background reading material.
Conduct a word search in Google or another search engine on
“Quiz: What Is Your Corporate Culture” to find an organizational
culture quiz. Take the quiz and discuss your results with your classmates. Be
sure to provide the link to the quiz.
Are the cultural dimensions you took from the quiz more
useful than the standard textbook dimensions of organizational culture that you
read about in the background readings? Refer to one or more authors (by name)
in your discussion.
Additional Key Elements of the Assignment:
Your Initial Post should occur in a timely manner (by the
third day of the module for full timeliness points). Include the original questions along with
your initial, informative post. Support
your post with information from at least one reference and provide the complete
source information (so that your peers can find the article if they wish). Bring in your own personal experiences, as
applicable.
Your Subsequent Posts: Read through responses by peers and
post responses to at least two classmates’ posts. Bring in ideas/comments and/or
research not mentioned yet.
Remember—To receive full credit in this forum, you need to
post a minimum of three quality posts (your own initial post, and responses to
two classmates). Only one outside source is needed (in the initial post). But
in any post, if you borrow ideas/information from other authors, give them
credit for their work.
Be sure to also complete the Self-Reflective Section of the
Module 4 discussion that follows. It is also graded.
Week 4 Reflective
discussion
Summary and Reflection
Paragraphs 1-3: Given the readings and assignments in the
course, identify and discuss three important concepts applicable to your work
experience, profession, and/or career plans for the future. Describe how each
applies.
Paragraph 4:What part of the course (background materials,
assignments, and so forth) helped to shape or reshape your perceptions of the
workplace?
Note: No outside research or citations are needed with your
four paragraphs to the Reflective Discussion. Also, no responses to your peers’
posts are needed.
Module 1 – Case
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WORKPLACE
Assignment Overview
Strong cognitive abilities are usually considered a very
important and positive trait to seek when hiring new employees. However, one
police department decided not to hire those who scored too high on a cognitive
skills exam on the grounds that people who are too intelligent will not be
satisfied with their job as a police officer and will end up quitting (Naish,
2013). This of course is a controversial policy that resulted in at least one
lawsuit.
For this assignment we will be looking at individual
characteristics that may predict job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
and job performance for police officers. Being a police officer is a demanding
job that requires strong physical capacity, sharp mental capacity to deal with
difficult and life threatening situations, and strong interpersonal skills in
order to effectively work with the communities they protect and serve. The
issue of what traits to look for in police officer recruiting is a controversial
one.
Review the background materials on individual traits,
personality, and attitudes such as job satisfaction and organizational
commitment. Then read these articles on law enforcement recruitment with the
issues in the background materials in mind:
Naish, R. (April, 2013). Too clever by half. E.Learning Age,
8.
Means, R., Lowry, K., & Conroy, D. (2011). Hiring:
Background investigation, part 3. Law & Order, 59(3), 12-13.
Reaume, S. (2009). Improved hiring for child protective
investigators. Law & Order, 57(2), 19-20,22,24.
Case Assignment
Now suppose a police department has hired you as a
consultant to come up with an exam to assess personality and other traits of
applicants to the department. The department is looking to hire applicants who
meet the following criteria:
Are likely to have strong job satisfaction and
organizational commitment to the police department after they are hired.
Will be able to work effectively under stressful and
sometimes life threatening situations, can make good decisions under pressure.
Will be able to present a positive image of the police
department in the communities they serve and maintain strong relations with
community leaders.
Using what you’ve learned in the background materials about
personality traits such as the Big Five Personality traits and factors that
influence job satisfaction and organizational behavior, come up with a four to
five page paper addressing the following issues:
Do you think cognitive abilities should be part of the exam?
Do you agree with the police department mentioned in Naish (2013) that there
should be an upper limit to cognitive abilities, or should the department try
to hire those with the highest cognitive abilities? Consider the concepts of
ability testing in Chapter 3 of Nair (2010) as part of your answer.
What personality traits do you think will best predict a
police officer’s ability to handle stressful situations in the field and make
decisions under stress? Consider the Big Five traits as well as any other personality
traits that you read about in Chapter 6 of Nair (2010). Be specific about what
traits the department should consider and why these traits will be associated
with an ability to work under stress.
What personality traits will best predict an ability to work
cooperatively with their coworkers as well as with members of the community
they serve? Again, be specific about which traits the department should
consider and why these traits will be associated with a good ability to work
with others. Use Chapter 6 of Nair (2010) as your source of information about
Big Five and other personality traits to consider.
Assignment Expectations
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
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you find an article on the internet, make
sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide”, which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 1 – SLP
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WORKPLACE
Assignment Instructions
For the Session Long Project, you will be applying the
concepts from the background materials to your own personal workplace
experiences. For this assignment, think of two former or current coworkers that
had unique personalities. Choose two people that you worked with closely enough
that you were able to get a good idea of their personality traits and workplace
attitudes.
Review the main personality traits and attitudes from the
background materials, and think about how these apply to your two coworkers.
Then write a three-page paper addressing the following issues:
How would you describe the personalities of these two
coworkers? Use the Big Five Personality traits and other personality traits
discussed in Chapter 6 of Nair (2010) to find the personality traits that best
describe your coworkers. You must use specific personality traits that you
found in the background readings for your answer.
How would you describe their workplace attitudes including
job satisfaction and organizational commitment? Use the concepts from Chapter 4
of Nair (2010) in your answer.
Do you think their personality traits impacted their
workplace attitudes, or did other factors such as the work environment, job
characteristics, etc. have a greater impact on their attitudes?
SLP Assignment Expectations
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
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the internet, make
sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 2 – Case
WORKPLACE MOTIVATION
Assignment Overview
In the background materials you read about some very
traditional theories of motivation such as Theory X and Theory Y, and the
hierarchy of needs. But one trend that has received a lot of attention in the
media is that of weird or offbeat methods to motivate employees. The recent
movie The Internship is set in the odd (or “googly”) workplace culture of
Google. Zappos Shoes even mentions “weirdness” in the list of corporate values.
CashLinq, a financial services firm, is famous for their Nerf
gun battles in the office. Eric Ryan, founder of the highly successful soap
company Method, was known to go to extremes to motivate employees such as
dressing up as a chipmunk or holding impromptu office dance parties. Other
examples of unorthodox motivation techniques may include unusual perks such as
health insurance for your pets, or allowing employees to ride scooters in the
office.
But is this just a passing fad for trendy new companies, or
is there actually a method to their madness? For this assignment, you will be
doing some research on these offbeat new motivation techniques and
investigating whether or not these techniques actually fit in with standard
textbook theories of motivation. Review the background materials, and then read
the following articles and also see if you can find any other examples of
bizarre or unusual workplace motivation techniques:
Alsop, R. J. (2010). The last word. Workforce Management,
89(10), 50. [Proquest]
Petrecca, L. (Dec. 30, 2011). Quirky perks for workers: Pet
insurance, massages. USA Today [Proquest]
Quirky offices may inspire employees. (Dec. 17, 2010, Dec
27). McClatchy – Tribune Business News [Proquest]
Habib, M. (Oct. 7, 2011). Foosball? bah. employers dangle
offbeat incentives. The Globe and Mail [Proquest]
Case Assignment
When you are done with your research, write a four- to
five-page paper addressing the following issues:
Are these unusual motivation techniques more closely matched
to McGregor’s Theory X, or his Theory Y? Cite at least one of the textbook
chapters from the required background readings to support your answer.
Which of Maslow’s needs do you think these techniques
address or do not address – physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and/or
self-actualization? Cite at least one of the textbook chapters from the
required background readings to support your answer.
Overall, what do you think the main advantages and
disadvantages are of these new and unusual motivation techniques as compared to
more traditional techniques?
Assignment Expectations
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
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the internet, make
sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 2 – SLP
WORKPLACE MOTIVATION
For the Session Long Project, you will be writing about an
organization you currently work for or have worked for in the past and applying
the background materials to your own experience. So the first step in this assignment is to
choose an organization that you have worked for that you want to write about.
Think about your own experiences at this organization, and
how motivated you were and what factors increased or decreased your
motivation. Then write a two to three
page paper covering the following issues:
What steps did management at your organization do to
motivate workers?
Did management seem to apply Theory X or Theory Y for their
motivation strategies? Or did they use
elements of both?
What needs in Maslow’s hierarchy does management at your
organization try to address?
SLP Assignment Expectations
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
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you
find articles on the internet, make sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources”
in the TLC portal.
Module 3 – Case
GROUPS AND TEAMS
Assignment Overview
A rapidly growing trend in the business world is the growth
of virtual teams. Some companies are allowing teleworking, which means that
more and more workers have to coordinate their activities with other team
members through the phone or Internet. Even among workers who are working from
their office, more and more companies are having employees work in teams with
employees who work at other locations who they may or may not have ever met in
person. New technologies have been developed to help facilitate virtual
teamwork, but challenges still remain.
Review the background materials and also do some research on
virtual teams. Here are a few articles on virtual teams to get you started:
Garfoot, A. (May 2003). The reality of virtual teams. IT
Training, 32-34. [ProQuest]
Sadri, G., & Condia, J. (2012). Managing the virtual
world. Industrial Management, 54(1), 21-25. [ProQuest]
Rigby, R. (2013). How best to manage a virtual team. The Financial
Times [ProQuest]
Case Assignment
When you are finished with your research, integrate what you
learned in general about group dynamics in the background materials with more
specific information you learned about virtual teams. Write a 4- to 5-page
paper addressing the following issues:
How do you think the five stages of group development
(forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) will be different for
virtual teams as compared to traditional teams? Discuss in regard to all five
stages of group development as covered in Nair (2010) and Aswathappa (2010).
Do you think virtual teams will be more or less cohesive
than traditional teams? Include a discussion of the issue of groupthink in your
discussion, and use Nair (2010) and Aswathappa (2010) as your guide to the
concepts of group cohesiveness and groupthink.
Overall, do you think virtual teams will perform better or
worse than traditional teams? Explain your answer with references to the
background readings.
Assignment Expectations
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
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the internet, make
sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide”, which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 3 – SLP
GROUPS AND TEAMS
This SLP has two functions. First, it helps you review the
topics in Module 3. Second, it measures the continuing development of your
written communications skills. The SLP will be graded using a special Written
Communications rubric, which you should review at this time.
Background: You work for a management consulting firm,
Capital Consultants (CC). Your firm has been hired to advise Fast Forward
Fashions, a small high-end house with a celebrity clientele. You have received
the following memo from the head of the company.
Dear <Your first name>,
I am assigning you to our newest client, Fast Forward
Fashions (F3). As you may know, this well-known fashion house has experienced
problems since the death of its chief designer, Sir Francis Cutwell.
In the two years since Sir Francis’s death, the CEO of F3,
M. Etienne Roget, has delegated artistic control to a committee of experienced
designers chosen from within the company. The results have been catastrophic.
In the first year, the committee could not decide on a theme for Spring. As a
result, that season’s collection was a confused mess that one critic referred
to as “the remnants of a Hollywood garage sale.” In the second year, the
committee tried to avoid making the same mistake and settled on a theme after
meeting for only one hour. The “Game of Thrones” collection was another
disaster, with such memorable items as a bronze helmet and a bearskin cape.
Roget has been searching the world for a chief designer to
fill the void created with Sir Francis’s death. He has been unsuccessful to
date. Further, he fears that disbanding the committee would be seen by its
members as a vote of no confidence and would lead to mass resignations.
Your job is to join the committee as a co-chair and advise
it on organizational matters. Obviously, you should not try to advise it on
fashion—CC has no expertise in that area. Your task will be to guide it in its
deliberations and help a small group of experienced, opinionated designers
achieve good results on the Winter 2017 collection.
Before you join the committee, M. Roget would like to have
some idea of what you will be looking for and what you may be able to
accomplish. To that end, you should prepare a paper briefly discussing what may
have happened to the committee in the past two years and what you could do to
keep it from happening again.
The paper should be between 3 and 4 double-spaced pages.
While not downplaying your or your company’s expertise, you should be
appropriately respectful toward M. Roget, who is a world fashion leader. Furthermore,
you should write in clear, concise, grammatically correct English, bearing in
mind that English is M. Roget’s fourth language (after French, Italian, and
Spanish).
I have discussed this assignment with CC’s chief technical
adviser, Dr. Manfred Paradigm. Manfred would like to make sure your paper is
theoretically sound before we send it to F3. For that reason, I am asking you
to include a list of references at the end, and citations in the body of the
paper showing us where and how you used those references. (To make sure you
include all the information we need, you should use some standard style. APA
would be a good choice.) Manfred and I will edit out the citations and
references before sending the paper to M. Roget.
Congratulations on being selected for this important
project. I am looking forward to seeing the final draft of your paper within
two weeks.
Cordially
Vladimir I. Lobachevski
President and Senior Partner
Capital Consultants PLL
SLP Assignment Expectations
Prepare the requested paper. You may interpret the “within
two weeks” deadline as meaning “before the end of this module.”
Study the Written Communications rubric. Review it before,
during, and after writing your paper.
Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the
materials cited on the Background page. Supplement these with relevant sources
you locate on the Web. Provide complete references on the last page of your
paper and citations in the body of your paper showing where you used the
sources. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper,
including pages 13-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing
Style Guide” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 4 – Case
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Assignment Overview
Signature Assignment—Written Communication Skills
Southwest Airlines and Koch Industries are both known for
their distinctive organizational cultures, and both have been highly successful
and profitable companies. Southwest
Airlines is known as a “fun” place to work where socialization and humor in the
workplace are strongly encouraged. Koch
Industries, on the other hand, has a culture defined by the principles of
“market-based management” where performance and revenue growth is emphasized.
Do some background reading on the cultures behind Southwest
Airlines and Koch Industries. While
doing your research, keep strongly in mind the characteristics of
organizational cultures discussed in the background materials such as
team-oriented, people-oriented, outcome-oriented, etc. Here are some articles to get you started on
your research that will give you some background about the cultures at these
two organizations:
Klein, D. (2011). Creating cultures that lead to success:
Lincoln Electric, Southwest Airlines, and SAS Institute. Organizational Dynamics 41(1), 35-39
[Available in Science Direct. Note: you
only have to read the middle portion of the article concerning Southwest Airlines
and not the whole article]
Bird, A. (Mar. 13, 2011). Southwest: Corporate culture
combines work, play. The Post and Courier. [Proquest]
Whatley, H. (2013). Principles and dimensions of
market-based management. Independent Journal of Management & Production,
4(1), 126-135. [Proquest]
Dissecting the Kochtopus. (Jun. 7, 2014). The Economist,
411, 76. [Proquest]
Case Assignment
When you are finished with your research, write a four to
five page paper addressing the following issues:
Describe the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines
the best you can using the characteristics of organizational culture discussed
in Rao (2010) and Piccolo and Bardes (2011).
These include but are not limited to detail-oriented, team-oriented,
innovative, aggressive, outcome-oriented, and people-oriented. Be specific as you can regarding which
characteristics of organizational culture that you read about in the background
materials apply to Southwest and which ones do not.
Describe the organizational culture of Koch Industries the
best you can using the characteristics of organizational culture discussed in
Rao (2010) and Piccolo and Bardes (2011).
Now suppose Koch Industries decided to purchase Southwest
Airlines. Compare and contrast the two
cultures, and explain what kind of challenges do you think they would face in
merging the two cultures. Also, explain
what steps you think would need to be taken in order to prevent culture clashes
between the two organizations. Use concepts from Rao (2010) or Piccolo and
Bardes (2011) as part of your recommendations on steps to take to avoid culture
clashes.
Assignment Expectations
Answer the assignment questions directly
This assignment has been selected as a signature assignment
to assess written communication skills.
A different rubric will be used for this assignment that emphasizes
written communication skills.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your
references. Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you
find articles on the internet, make sure it is from a credible source.
Reference your sources of information with both a
bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a
High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.
Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide, which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC portal.
Module 4 – SLP
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Assignment Instructions
For this final SLP, choose an organization that you
currently work for or have worked for in the past. You will be applying the concepts of
organizational culture that you read about in the background materials to this
organization.
Write a two to three page paper addressing the following
issues:
Describe how your organization rates on these cultural
characteristics: detail-oriented, team-oriented, innovative, aggressive,
outcome-oriented, and people-oriented.
Discuss how strong the organizational culture is at your
organization. To what extent is the
organization’s culture shared by employees and managers?
What aspects of your organization’s culture do you think
should be changed, and what steps would you recommend to change the
culture? Use concepts from Rao (2010) in
forming your recommendation
