PrOACT Approach To Problem Solving

The PrOACT Approach model was developed by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa, and is described in their book, Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions (1999). This model uses a step-by-step strategy for breaking a problem apart and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions. Read Ch. 4 Lecture Notes (Blackboard) to help with this assignment.

Directions:

  1. Think of a problem you are having.
  2. Analyze the problem by completing each step below.
  3. Describe the solution you decide on in the space provided.

 

The PrOACT Approach model was developed by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa, and is described in their book, Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions (1999). This model uses a step-by-step strategy for breaking a problem apart and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions. Read Ch. 4 Lecture Notes (Blackboard) to help with this assignment.

Directions:

  1. Think of a problem you are having.
  2. Analyze the problem by completing each step below.
  3. Describe the solution you decide on in the space provided.

 

 

Which of the following will correctly calculate the total slack in an activity?

Which of the following will correctly calculate the total slack in an activity?

Question 2

Which of the following is provided by both the project network and the work breakdown structure?

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic rules to follow when developing project networks?

Question 4

Which of the following is true about hammock activities?

Question 5

Activities which can take place at the same time are termed

Question 6

When translated into a project network, a work package will become+

Question 7

If testing cannot be completed any earlier than four days after the prototype has been built, what type of lag exists?

Question 8

The backward pass in project network calculations determines all of the following EXCEPT

Question 9

The requirement for a freshly poured foundation to cure before beginning construction is an example of which of the following type of lag?

Question 10

An activity that has more than one dependency arrow flowing into it is termed a(n)

Question 11

If a project has more than one activity that can begin when the project is to start, a common start node should be used to indicate a clear project beginning on the network. Without a common start node, each path is a

Question 12

Which of the following represents an activity on an activity-on-node (AON) project network?

Question 13

Laura is forecasting the time and cost of developing an intranet for a new customer. Her department has completed six such intranets for customers during the last two years. Although the proposed system is about the same size as the others, she estimates that it will take about 10 percent less time and money. Which of the following methods is she using?

Question 14

Companies are using which of the following for improving the estimating process for future projects?

Question 15

Which of the following does NOT help describe a bottom-up estimating approach?

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT one of the recommended guidelines for developing useful work package estimates?

Question 17

In practice, estimating processes are frequently classified as

Question 18

Typical kinds of costs found in a project include all of the following EXCEPT

Question 19

Refining estimates may be necessary for a number of reasons. For example, a manager getting further into a project and obtaining a better understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish a project and meet the needs of the customer is an example of

Question 20

Which of the following would best represent direct project costs?

Question 21

What is the relationship between organizational culture and estimating?

Question 22

Ed is looking over the actual results of projects and comparing them to what was estimated. He notices that the projects that took six months or longer to complete were noticeably more off the estimates. Which of the following factors is he recognizing?

Question 23

Sean is forecasting the time and cost of developing a customized software program by looking at the number of inputs, outputs, inquiries, files, and interfaces. Which of the following methods is he using?

Question 24

Refining estimates may be necessary for a number of reasons. For example, people working on prototype development needing time to interact with the design engineers after the design is completed is a good example of

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT one of the bottom-up approaches to estimating project time and cost?

 

Correlation / Linear Regression / Multiple Regression

Part One – Correlation

Read Lecture Ten. Lecture Ten introduces the idea that different variables may move together—sometimes due to causation and at other times due to an unknown influence. An example involves the perfect (+1.0) correlation between annual number of rum barrels imported into the New England region of the U.S. between the years 1790 and 1820 and the number of churches built each of those years (citation lost). Discuss this correlation: What does it tell us? Does rum drinking cause church building? Does church building cause rum drinking? Or what else could it tell us? If this correlation shows a cause and effect relationship, what drives what? If not, why does it exist? What could this correlation be used for? (This should be started on Day 1.) 

Part Two – Linear Regression

Read Lecture Eleven. Lecture Eleven provides information showing a strong positive correlation and a significant linear regression existed between the individual’s salary and midpoint (used as a substitute for grade). This is not an unexpected outcome in a company. How useful are these in understanding what drives salary differences? Why? What examples of a linear regression might be useful in your personal or professional lives? Why? (This should be started on Day 3.)

Part Three – Multiple Regression

Read Lecture Twelve. In Lecture Twelve, a multiple-regression equation was developed that showed the factors that influenced a person’s salary and—almost as important—factors that did not influence salary. How do we interpret a multiple-regression equation? Pick one of the factors—whether statistically significant or not—used in the analysis, and describe its impact on salary, what the coefficient is and what it means, what its significance is, and whether you expected this outcome or not. (This should be completed by Day 5.)

 

Define and explain Relative advantage

Question

Question 1 (1 point) Question 1 Saved

The __________ model is a popular model of decision making that requires information about how useful or important each attribute is to the customer making a brand choice and how customers perceive the brands in the evoked set in terms of their attributes.

Question 1 options:

multi-attribute

cluster

compensatory

attribution

Question 2 (1 point) Question 2 Saved

Which of the following analyses is more useful for trend-spotting than for developing segments for individual brands?

Question 2 options:

Cohort analysis

Regression analysis

SWOT analysis

Factor analysis

Question 3 (1 point) Question 3 Saved

In regard to the adoption of new technologies, the extent to which customers are uncertain about the consequences of an action is termed as:

Question 3 options:

perceived risk.

systemic risk.

speculative risk.

pure risk.

Question 4 (1 point) Question 4 Saved

Craig is the CMO of Speedoconnect, an Internet Services Provider that has been consistently losing market share for the past three quarters. Craig conducts a customer analysis to understand the weaknesses in the company’s service operations. Which of the following groups is most critical in this customer analysis?

Question 4 options:

Potential customers

Former customers

Competitors’ customers

Current customers

Question 5 (1 point) Question 5 Saved

According to the VALS system developed by SRI International, __________ are successful, sophisticated, and active people with high self-esteem and significant resources.

Question 5 options:

makers

believers

achievers

innovators

Question 6 (1 point) Question 6 Saved

__________ is the concept that a customer will adopt an innovation only if he or she considers it to be an improvement over the current product being used to satisfy the same need.

Question 6 options:

Need recognition

Observability

Relative advantage

Planned obsolescence

Question 7 (1 point) Question 7 Saved

In technology-based markets, the marketing manager must understand who the different customers that will purchase the product at the introductory stage of the product life cycle and who will purchase the product as it matures. According to Everett Rogers, which of the following types of customers will be the first to buy the product?

Question 7 options:

Innovators

Laggards

Early adopters

Early majority

Question 8 (1 point) Question 8 Saved

More effort by both external and internal parties is necessary for need recognition in a __________ situation.

Question 8 options:

straight rebuy

repetition purchase

modified rebuy

new-task

Question 9 (1 point) Question 9 Saved

Industrial products are normally more complex than consumer products. It means that industrial companies are more likely to be:

Question 9 options:

technology focused rather than market focused.

market focused rather than customer focused.

customer focused rather than product focused.

product focused rather than customer focused.

Question 10 (1 point) Question 10 Saved

Which of the following best describes routine purchases made from the same suppliers used in the past?

Question 10 options:

New-task purchase

Straight rebuys

Repetitive purchase

Modified rebuys

Question 11 (1 point) Question 11 Saved

A company is not happy with the present document-copying capabilities so it decides to outsource its copying to a service firm. This is an example of a:

Question 11 options:

new-task situation.

modified rebuy.

repetition purchase.

straight rebuy.

Question 12 (1 point) Question 12 Saved

Which one of the examples below best characterizes a modified rebuy?

Question 12 options:

Purchasing airline tickets under a new fare schedule

Purchasing the first local intranet for a small business

Purchasing paper clips for the office

Purchasing toner for the office

Question 13 (1 point) Question 13 Saved

According to the classification system for global organizational culture as developed by Hofstede, the degree to which employees are threatened by ambiguity is known as:

Question 13 options:

ambiguity tolerance.

uncertainty avoidance.

power distance.

long-term orientation.

Question 14 (1 point) Question 14 Saved

Usually in this stage of the buying process, benefits rather than specific product or service characteristics are stated.

Question 14 options:

Search for and qualify potential suppliers

Determine the characteristics

Request proposals

Establish specifications

Question 15 (1 point) Question 15 Saved

A back-of-the-envelope approach to calculating lifetime customer value (LCV) is a margin “multiple,” which can be used to multiply the current margin generated by each customer to estimate the LCV. This multiple is shown by the formula: r/(1 + i + r) In this formula, “r” stands for:

Question 15 options:

failure rate for the firm’s products.

retention rate for the product.

rate of return of the product by the customers.

the reliability of the product.

Question 16 (1 point) Question 16 Saved

The expected length of time a customer will remain active is known as:

Question 16 options:

retention rate.

survival rate.

win-back rate.

lifetime duration.

Question 17 (1 point) Question 17 Saved

Lifetime customer value is often described as the:

Question 17 options:

cost of customers switching to another brand.

cost of retaining the customer.

cost of acquiring the customer.

present value of a stream of revenue that can be produced by a customer.

Question 18 (1 point) Question 18 Saved

Net Promoter is a metric introduced by Reichheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article “The One Number You Need to Grow.” This metric indicates:

Question 18 options:

product quality.

customer profitability.

relative position of the organization in the industry.

customer loyalty.

Question 19 (1 point) Question 19 Saved

Which of the following is a primary customer-based metric?

Question 19 options:

Market share

Sales volume

Return on investment

Lifetime duration

Question 20 (1 point) Question 20 Saved

Successful communities on the Internet offer participants:

Question 20 options:

a sense of place with codes of behavior.

sample of the product before actually purchasing the product.

discounts on the price of the product.

free services for maintaining and repairing the product.

 

Discuss different approaches concerning organizational structure

Discuss different approaches concerning organizational structure

. The text describes a number of different approaches concerning organizational structure. Which do you think would be ideal for GM’s success in China? Which of the structures would help GM expand to other foreign markets? What are the advantages and disadvantages of promoting decentralization in GM’s operations in China?1. The text describes a number of different approaches concerning organizational structure. Which do you think would be ideal for GM’s success in China? Which of the structures would help GM expand to other foreign markets? What are the advantages and disadvantages of promoting decentralization in GM’s operations in China?

Discuss the travel decision-making process

 

Why do we travel?

 

This assignment requires you to select a family member, friend, or self-identified travel companion. Once you have identified who you would like to travel with, answer the following questions:

 

Describe your companion based upon market segmentation: geography, demographics, psychographics, and product-related variables (see pages 43-49).

 

Using Figure 2-1, the travel decision-making process on page 36 of your textbook, take some time with your self-identified travel group, and walk through the decision-making process.

 

 How did the process work?

 

 What were the challenges and benefits of the process?

 

 Identify the travel motivations addressed (pages 38-43).

 

 What were the results of your decision?

 

 

Your response should be a minimum of two pages in length, double-spaced. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations, and be cited per APA guidelines.

 

 

**I have scanned copies of the coursebook pages that are listed above and I will send to you as an attachment at the point we handshake if you agree complete this assignment.

 

 

Will you be able to complete this assignment for $20; I need assignment completed by 4/9/17 @8:00

Culture and International Human Resource Management

Module 1 – Case

Culture and International Human Resource Management

Assignment Overview

Before beginning this assignment, make sure you have thoroughly reviewed the main concepts from this module. This includes the concepts of host, home, and third country nationals as well as ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric strategies. Rao (2010) is the main reference for these topics but the tutorial and video will also help as will Newlands and Hooper (2009). Make sure you are also thoroughly familiar with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and other aspects of national culture. Carpenter and Dunung (2012) as well as Hofstede’s webpage will help with this topic.

Case Assignment

Write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

  1. Suppose a British computer company has a top secret manufacturing technology. They are expanded overseas to China and Bangladesh to establish new factories using this secret technology. What kind of staffing policy do you think they should use when hiring managers for their new factories? Should they emphasize parent country nationals in their hiring? Host country nationals? Third country nationals? Explain your reasoning and cite Rao (2010) as part of your answer.
  2. An American beverage company is planning an expansion both to France and to India by merging with some local companies in these countries. Based on Hofstede’s measures, which of these mergers would be easier to manage? What type of global selection approach to hiring do you think would be used in France and India—ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric? Explain your reasoning, and cite Rao (2010) as part of your answer.
  3. Bob Smith is the CEO of an American company. All of his employees, even entry-level employees, call him “Bob” rather than “Mr. Smith.” He has an open-door policy where any employee can stop by his office to share their concerns. While Bob is approachable, he is also quick to reward employee performance through pay raises or bonuses and quick to punish poor performing employees with suspensions or even termination. Now Bob is planning on opening a new branch of his company in South Korea. Which of Bob’s practices may have to change in the Korean office? Refer to Hofstede’s dimensions and to Carpenter and Dunung (2012) as part of your answer.
  4. Rick is an American corporate executive who gets assigned to the company’s China branch. His first month in China is really difficult for him. He is frustrated when people don’t know English, is shocked by the non-Western restroom facilities, and can’t handle most of the food served in the restaurants. After a few months he starts to learn the language a bit and makes some friends with some local residents. How does Rick’s first few months differ from the four-step “U-shaped” curve discussed in Rao (2010)? What techniques discussed in Rao (2010) could Rick’s company have used to help prevent his initial culture shock?

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 reli

    Culture and International Human Resource Management

    ble 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 they are 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 11-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.

Module 1 – SLP

Culture and International Human Resource Management

For the Session Long Project for this class, first choose a country interests you other than the United States (you need to learn about another culture other than your home culture for this assignment). You can pick any country you want other than the United States among those included on Hofstede’s webpage:

http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

You will be looking at a different aspect of doing business in this country in each of your Module 1-4 SLPs. For this first SLP, you will be focusing on the culture of this country and how it differs with the culture of the U.S. You can start by looking at the cultural values of this country as shown on the Hofstede webpage linked above.

Keep in mind that it is controversial to try to quantify national culture, so don’t rely only on Hofstede for this paper. Do some additional research and try to find additional information about the cultural aspects of doing business in your country. Then write a two to three page paper addressing the following issues:

  1. Go to the Hofstede webpage and look up the values of individualism, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance for both your chosen country and for the United States. What are the main differences between national culture in the U.S. and your chosen country? What implications might these differences have on doing business in your country?
  2. What other information besides Hofstede have you been able to find about culture in your country?  How do these aspects of culture impact doing business in your country?
  3. Overall, does the national culture of your country make it easy or difficult to business? What cultural pitfalls might an American company investing in your country face?

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 they are 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 11-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.

Module 1 – Background

Culture and International Human Resource Management

Required Reading

A good place to start are these this short interactive tutorial and video below which will give you a brief introduction to some of the main concepts of human resource management. Pay close attention to the concepts of hiring host country nationals, expatriates (parent country nationals), and third country nationals. Also, pay close attention to the concept of ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric human resource management:

Pearson logo International employees. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY.

Bheobhe. (2015, October 5). International human resource management

. University of New South Wales, Australia. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1WzcxtEUps

 

Once you have finished reviewing the tutorials, delve deeper into this topic by reading the following chapter. Pay special attention to the section on ethnocentric, geocentric, and polycentric human resource orientations and also the section on host country nationals (HCNs), parent country nationals (PCNs), and third country nationals (TCNs):

Evaluate organizational structure concerns.

Please READ and review the details of the ENTIRE assignment. The assignment must be written professionally, scholarly, APA format, and MUST include every detail the assignment asks to be completed.

 

Attached is…The Assignment Rubric…Case Study Document…PLEASE RESEARCH THE DOCUMENTS….THEY PROVIDE INFORMATION NEEDED TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT CORRECTLY

 

**Please do not rush the assignment….plenty of time to Research, and properly complete the assignment**

 

Details:

 

Previously, you employed academic writing to describe business decisions made related to a segment of a multi-year integrated case study, and you suggested research needs that result from your interaction with the case. In this assignment, you will use concise business writing to create a presentation of your decisions and rationale for delivery to a C-suite executive in a corporation.

 

General Requirements:

 

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

 

  • Refer to “MGT-805 Integrated Case Study” located in the Course Add-Ons for this course.
  • Refer to the paper you wrote in the Topic 5 assignment as well as related instructed feedback.
  • This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
  • APA style is not required for this assignment, but correct and appropriate business writing is expected.

Directions:

 

Using the case study paper you wrote in Topic 5, create an executive summary presentation of the paper (5-7 slides, exclusive of the Title and Reference slides) with appropriate “Speaker Notes” that could be delivered to a C-suite executive in a corporation in less than 4 minutes. Consider the feedback from your instructor on the case study paper you completed in Topic 5. Include the following in your presentation:

 

  1. A summary of the business issue emphasizing the organizational structure concerns.
  2. An overview of at least two viable potential resolutions and the supporting research and organizational theory analyses. (Reinforces C.2.3: Recommend the application of newly developed or revised theories to specific business opportunities and challenges.)
  3. An overview of the ethical implications of each option and the extent to which these ethical implications are influenced by the mission, vision, and core values of Purple Cloud. (Reinforces C.2.2: Recognize that values and ethics are fundamental to business success and sustainability.)
  4. Your recommended solution, rationale, and influence on the long-term organizational health of Purple Cloud. (Reinforces C.2.3: Recommend the application of newly developed or revised theories to specific business opportunities and challenges and C. 2.5: Validate and advance business practice through the appropriate application of business theory.

Define and explain Contingency

MGT 550 Week 1 Quiz 1

Contingency means that:

_____ refers to the amount of resources used to achieve an organization’s goals.

_____ complexity is the degree to which an organization’s departments and personnel are dispersed geographically.

Which of the following contingency factors will influence whether an organization is more effective with a primarily organic design?

A _____ is a narrowly defined piece of work assigned to a person.

Organization design:

A _____ has discretion and responsibility, allowing a person to use his or her judgment and ability to achieve an outcome or meet a goal.

Organizations are social entities that are only linked to the internal environment.

Scientific management focuses primarily on design and functioning of an organization as a whole.

Social media can build stronger, more authentic relationships between managers and employees.

Organization design is directly relevant to top- and middle-management concerns and partly relevant to lower management.

Managers in nonprofits direct most of their activities toward earning money for the company and its owners.

Which of the following is a difference between organization design and organizational behavior?

_____ primarily focus on the design and functioning of an organization as a whole.

_____ pertains to the amount of written documentation in an organization.

The growing global interdependence means that the environment for companies has become less complex and competitive.

Which of the following contingency factors will influence whether an organization is more effective with a primarily mechanistic organization design?

Top management is concerned with major departments, such as marketing or research, and must decide how the department relates to the rest of an organization.

_____ refers to economic development that generates wealth and meets the needs of the current generation while saving the environment so future generations can meet their needs as well.

_____ is the micro approach to organizations because it focuses on the individuals within organizations as the relevant units of analysis.

Which of the following is true of contingency factors?

  • 6 years ago

IT Ethics Assignment

 

Read the article below and answer the following questions.  You should use information from the first IT Ethics assignment in your answers.    You can also use information from other parts of the ebook by Lessig provided in the first IT Ethics assignment to support your answers.

1.  What are the “facts” of the case itself?  Remember, the facts, not your opinion
2.  What are the implications of this case being overturned for a person’s data stored on the web?   This will be some of your own opinion
3.  Why do you think companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix sided with the court’s opinion?
4.  Last, read Lessig-Codev2.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window, Chapter 17, the first portion under the heading “Responses of a Judiciary”.   Do you see where Lessig’s idea here applies to this case?   Support your answer.

Your final product should be 3 pages.

Article:  http://fortune.com/2016/05/16/supreme-court-spokeo-decision (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Supreme Court Case: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/spokeo-inc-v-robins/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Lessig Ebook:  Lessig-Codev2.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window

 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

 

Read the article below and answer the following questions.  You should use information from the first IT Ethics assignment in your answers.    You can also use information from other parts of the ebook by Lessig provided in the first IT Ethics assignment to support your answers.

1.  What are the “facts” of the case itself?  Remember, the facts, not your opinion
2.  What are the implications of this case being overturned for a person’s data stored on the web?   This will be some of your own opinion
3.  Why do you think companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix sided with the court’s opinion?
4.  Last, read Lessig-Codev2.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window, Chapter 17, the first portion under the heading “Responses of a Judiciary”.   Do you see where Lessig’s idea here applies to this case?   Support your answer.

Your final product should be 3 pages.

Article:  http://fortune.com/2016/05/16/supreme-court-spokeo-decision (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Supreme Court Case: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/spokeo-inc-v-robins/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Lessig Ebook:  Lessig-Codev2.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window

 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.