...MGT 400 STUDY GUIDE 1 (MID-TERM) Materials needed for preparation: Lectures (slides): 1 – What is culture; 2 – Conceptual culture models; 3 – Culture shock and expatriate adjustment; 4 – Motivation; 5 – Decision making; 6 – Ethics. Textbook: Chapter 2 (Culture & International Management), 7 (Motivation), 9 (Decision Making) Cases: (1) Foundering Expatriate; (2) Black & Decker Readings: “The silent language in overseas business”; “Right ways to manage expats”; “Value in tension: Ethics away from home” What is Culture? 1. What is the definition of culture? Acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and actions. This knowledge then influence values ,attitude and behavior 2. What are the three levels of culture? What are the examples for each level? Surface level food holidays Underwater level economy customs Deep level value belief 3. How is culture transmitted? Both formal and informal Informal transmission occurs every day as individuals interact with each other, watch television, or read books Formal transmission occurs through efforts to socialize as an individual, such as in schools and government 4. How does culture impact communication in organizations? Culture has an impact on how communication takes place in an organization, what is communicated (e.g., only work related or including personal issues), and the manner in which information is communicated (direct confrontation...
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...Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Case Incident “The Persuasion Imperative.” It discusses information about IBM’s training program, as well as other keys to persuasion and influence that were not mentioned in IBM’s program. These topics are compared with the topics discussed in Chapter 13 of the textbook. Finally, we discuss whether or not generational values can explain the changing nature of the employer-employee relationship. Persuasion is necessary in the field of management. In review of the case study, there are several key points to contemplate: * Are the precepts of IBM’s training program consistent with the concepts in the chapter? Why or why not? * Based on the chapter, are there other keys to persuasion and influence that might be added to the IBM program? * If you had a manager who wanted you to do something against your inclination, which of IBM’s elements would work best on you? Why? * From Chapter 5, do you think generational values explain the changing nature of the employer-employee relationship? Why or why not? Are the precepts of IBM’s training program consistent with the concepts in the chapter? Why or why not? IBM’s precepts are stated as: build shared vision; negotiate collaboratively; make trade-offs; and build and maintain your network. These precepts do line up with the concepts from the chapter. In review of Robins & Judge information, there are distinct influence tactics: Legitimacy (relying...
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...Jess Kharasch Professor Liu MGT304 D 1/23/13 Case Study 1 I believe that only certain individuals are attracted to the types of jobs demonstrated in this case study. Many people would be extremely hesitant to take a job with a 60-hour workweek or more. This case study demonstrates that the types of people who dedicate their lives to these kinds of jobs must be willing to sacrifice leisure time as well as time spent with their families or loved ones. I believe that one of the most important factors for people to continue to work these types of jobs is that they also must enjoy what they do. One characteristic of these jobs that might contribute to increased levels of job satisfaction is the thrill of taking a risk. For example, Irene Tse works for Goldman and Sachs. Her job and money is dependent on the stock market and it is her job to invest large amounts of money that could easily been increased of lost. I believe it is the thrill of investing large amounts of money that plays a major role in keeping her interest in her job. Another obvious factor is the amount of money each of them makes because they are clearly all extremely driven people with a desire to succeed. I believe the four individual’s in the case study satisfaction with their jobs definitely relates to their job performance, citizenship behavior and turnover. Because they are satisfied with their careers, they will have a better job performance and have more of a desire to help their colleagues...
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...Toyota Case Operation Management Optional Case #1 Optional case 1 1. What would you do to address the seat problem? Where would you focus your attention and solution efforts? We would focus on a series of actions: • We would first collect data on seats defect issue and try to find out what is the cause of the problem using the 5 Why's analysis. On the other hand we would ask KFS management to do the same thing. Then arrange a meeting with people involved in QM and come up and agree on a solution. TMM should investigate the issue of why are there differences in the 1st shift and 2nd shift at the rear seat installation (left as well as write hand side)? KFS should investigate what is wrong with rear seat: hook, lack of communication/synchronization between team KFS and TMM team. • In the effort of addressing the seat problem, we would also build a tiger team with the specific target to solve this issue in a determined period of time. The team should have just this issue to solve (a project based activity). Team members should be managers from TMM (mandatory Shirley Sargent, Da Prille, Lewis, Creemens) and with participation of KFS representative managers and somebody experienced from Tsutsumi. Taking into consideration that Tsutsumi didn't report so far any problem with the same engineering drawings, and also looking at their decrease in defects rate (from 7 occurrences per shift to one per shift by April), it looks that if they had a problem with the seats, they managed...
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...Case Study Lesley Aponte MGT/448 Professor Luis Rios-Silva September 20, 2014 Starting s business is never going to be easy; a person encounters small issues to even major issues. The company I read about was Nike. Although Nike is a successful business it has legal issues that it is coming across for many years now. The legal issues that Nike is having have to do with the manufacturing of the business. Nike only does the marketing and design and does not do any of the manufacturing, the manufacturing is done in another countries, which consists of Vietnam, which was South Korea, and in the 1970s the Nike shoes were made in Korea and Taiwan. By the 1980s a majority of Nike shoes were made in Indonesia and China. The issue that is going on is the labor issues that is going on in these countries with the workers is that they are working more than 60 hours and not getting paid enough they are getting paid about $.20 an hour. The situation that is occurring is that different human rights organizations and anti-globalization protesters feel that for the hours and labor all those employees put in that this is unfair labor practice and it is unjust. The thing about the United State labor laws is that they are different in other countries labor law but at the same time the workers are still getting less than the amount that is considered minimum wage which can be $3.00 a day and the employers working at the manufacturing company that is owned by Nike is making...
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...Case Study, Module 4 TUI University MGT 599 Strategic Management EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is an established high-end pizza restaurant chain competing primarily in the United States although it does have some international locations. The company reported an estimated $664.7 million in revenue for 2009 and operates some 252 unique locations with more than 14 thousand employees (California, 2009). The Porter’s Five Force Analysis indicates that the degree of industry rivalry is extremely high making CPK’s generic strategy based on quality difficult to maintain in a down economy. Additionally, the sheer number of competitors in the industry and the pizza segment specifically affords buyers a lot of power in choice. The PEST analysis indicates that CPK’s industry is not very regulated although it is subject to some health inspections at the lower government levels and the economic segment of the PEST is its area of critical exposure. The recommendation is that CPK hasten its international expansion into markets such as China in order to diversify its markets and revenue streams. CPK’S STRATEGY CPK is competing in a very crowded marketplace which is the restaurant industry an industry that is extremely competitive. There strategy is more focus within the company's market...
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... Dr. Pavone Dr. Pavone Module 1, Case MGT 401 Module 1, Case MGT 401 08 Fall 08 Fall Trident University MGT 401 Module 1, Case Dr. Pavone Based on the background reading and my analysis of the leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook I would definitely prefer reporting to Mr. Cook. The reason this is, is because I am a laid back person and have a personality more like Mr. Cook’s so that’s who I would prefer to report too. It just seems I would like Tim Cook’s personality more. He seems a lot more humble than Steve Jobs ever was. In one of the articles for the required readings for this module “Mapping a path out of Steve Jobs shadow” the article states the company is happier and even somewhat more transparent than it was during Job’s tenure. There are fewer frantic calls at midnight, and there’s less implicit pressure on engineers to cut short or cancel vacations in the heat of product development cycles. This alone, states the differences in how the work environment was run under Job’s reign versus Cook’s current time as CEO. The article further states that unlike Job’s, Tim Cook is the type of manager that would wait until the end of meetings so other can give him information to process. His leadership style is quite different both internally and externally. He’s much more open. They think he believes he doesn’t have all the answers so he’s willing to listen to other people. I’m not so sure this was the case with Steve Jobs. We know from the PowerPoint...
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...Case Analysis Paper AT&T Vs. Skype Author’s note This analysis will identify the key issues revealed in the case study, “Skype vs. AT&T and the future of telecommunications” (Strickland et al 2011). The analysis will explore the current state of the telecommunications industry with the rapid emergence of the Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, wireless communications and the effects on traditional landline or what is known as Publicly Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This effort will look into current problems and successes with increased focus on AT&T and Skype. Additionally, this paper will attempt to provide a perspective on the key issues with assumptions of what some of the causal factors may have been. Finally, what the companies’ leadership may consider for the future. Prior to examining the key issues of Skype and AT&T, what is Skype vs. AT&T? Skype was currently one of the industry leaders in VoIP and desired to challenge AT&T and other large phone companies. The telecommunication business is certainly going through a technological revolution with increased demands for faster speeds and services. Additionally the infrastructure is in demand to grow with the customer needs. AT&T along with several other landline based companies owned a major portion of the Internet infrastructure. Skype requires access to the Internet by way of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in order for Skype to provide their VoIP service...
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...This case study focuses on a predicament of an increased turnover .high standards are set in the organization regarding production and functioning , yet they could not retain employees. The chain of command in the organization sets the line foremen in charge of monitoring the hourly workers. The lost elements of authority and respect between the two different positions forms a tense work environment .Bellingham mentioned ( as cited in Skinner, W.& Beckham, H (2008) ) " they feel that their contributions are undervalued and their concerns ignored "(P.4,para.7). Problem: The employed line foremen are not experienced enough nor trained sufficiently to monitor and supervise .The general advisor Herb Adams stated ( as cited in Skinner, W.& Beckham, H (2008) ) "They have to keep their eyes open for trouble makers and let them know who is boss"(P.5,para.4). Which clarifies the lack of required skills. Opportunity: Employees will know where they stand and what is expected from them . As cited in Skinner, W.& Beckham, H (2008),Bellingham stated that there are the two factors used by supervisors to judge the employees " their ability to meet or exceed forecasts, and how they manage and train their hourly workers"(p.6,para2). Recommendation: further training may not be effective immediately , yet their skills stretch to an extent that fulfills the requirements of the job in some time (Ekaterini Galanou, 2009). The trainee program will boost their knowledge, and will show...
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...April Bunch Case Study What does diversity training teach? Today’s workforce is very different than it was in the past. It is not at all uncommon to see women not only making up a large percentage of the workforce, but also in top management positions. Diversity training was designed to focus not only on legal compliance but also improving the relationships among workers. Research shows, however, that diversity training programs may not be delivering the expected outcomes. 1. I think diversity training programs are effective in improving representation in management, because they include strategies to measure the representation of women and minorities in management positions, and they hold managers accountable for achieving more demographically diverse management teams. 2. One-shot diversity training does not have any strategies to encourage effective diversity management back on the job. Organizations that provided one-shot diversity training sessions were not consistently more likely to have women and minorities in upper management positions than organizations that did provide diversity training, which makes the training ineffective. 3. One of the most important obstacles to overcome in the effectiveness of diversity training programs is strong representation in top management. Ineffective communication of company policies and practices also leads to ineffective diversity training programs. 4. If I designed a diversity program, it would involve strong representation...
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...2. ROGERS’ RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES: The firm had strong resources and capabilities. These are given below- ❖ Physical Resources: Rogers’ was a healthy company with significant assets. Rogers’ chocolate used to produce 24000 square foot manufacturing facility on the outskirt of Victoria .There were about 110 non-unionized retail and production employees. It had large retail outlets about 50% of the company’s sales come from Rogers’ 11 retail stores. Consequently, it had widespread distribution system which is based on geographic, demographic, cultural, socio-economic and all other demographic factors. ❖ Financial Resources: The company was in a good financial position with great cash flow and good margins. It had well designed financial strategies and it followed the Canada Revenue Agency’s guidelines. ❖ Strong Brand Name: Rogers’ had positive brand image. The brand was established around Rogers’ long history, with traditional packaging, including pink or brown gingham-wrapped Victoria creams, Chocolate Almond Brittle and Empress Squares. ❖ An Attractive Customer Base: Rogers’ chocolates were of the highest quality; and the company had many loyal customers around the world. The people who knew the brand were willing to pay for the product. ❖ Technology: Rogers’ most production system consisted of batch processing, utilizing technology. It had the ability to improve its production processes by advancing the technology related aspects. Such as...
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...Case C – Competition among the North American Wholesale Clubs: Costco Wholesale versus Sam's CLub versus BJ Wholesale 1. List the five (5) most significant strengths and weaknesses of Costco and the primary or support activities in which these strengths and weaknesses are found. Strengths * Good revenue (yearly sales over $300 million generated by warehouse with $131 million actually per store worldwide * Customer Loyalty through its loyal membership (Example of Gold Star membership) * Low cost of product and services: low pricing was one of the best strategies of Costco with top quality (lower than the offer of the competitors)-Ultra low price Policy. * Good treatment of employees as well as good wages which is a factor resulting in high the performance * A unique and exceptional Employment policy which allow people to give themselves the chance and value themselves by giving them hope about realization and any position they may acquire now or later through promotions; How they can go from just pushing card to be vice president + World’s largest seller of Wine with $597 million in only one year, 2009 Weaknesses * Weak advertisement, (just by mail) hen others are using Media, people pay more attention to media than, mails, they generally don’t have time to read commercial in the mails * Unimportance of Profit margin * No self-checkout, just thinking about being at the end of a long time, does not encourage people to...
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...Case One – Tenneco MGT 410 October 10, 2014 PART 1: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION Tenneco is an oil rig company located off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico. On an annual basis the company loses about 3 million dollars due to rig’s averaging 3 lost time injuries per month and 9 non-lost time injuries. In May 1987 one of the rigs reached a milestone of working one full year without a lot-time injury. The president of the company was so impressed with the crew on the rig that we flew in personally to present the crew with a bronze plaque. On top of that the crew was awarded prizes averaging about $200 which were to be delivered in July 1987. But in June 1987, Joe Herbert a supervisor on the rig informed the human resource that he had an unreported accident in November 1986 and due to the accident he is going to need back surgery. Even though it was the company’s policy to record all accidents this accident was not recorded. To make things worse Joe had at ATV accident in May and due to him not reporting the accident right away. PART 2: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS There are four key issues that need to be addressed; should the crew still be awarded the prizes, ,why wasn’t the incident reported, is there any way to prove that Joe’s back injury is caused from the ATV accident verse the work incident, and lastly are there any other safety programs should be in place. The easiest issue to resolve is to decide if the crew should still be awarded the prizes. Should the crew still...
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...Introduction : A three star hotel located in china , considered bringing foreign experts to upgrade it into a five star hotel. Did the strangers make any new friends ? however , they applied some effort. Background : The surrounding economy was on a slow incline, yet the RDH ignored any revenue or reputation decline along with avoiding new activities. They were aware but unconcerned about producing high profits (Grainger, 2008). Problem : Compromising in relationships, between people and between businesses forms a stronger Guanxi connection, which the new GM didn't value . Cui Fang , told the GM (As cited in Grainger,S.(2008) ) "if he refused the offer he would be effectively excluding HI from any future bookings..."(Para.18). Fang then left taking with him plenty of profitable friends of the business (Grainger, 2008). Opportunity : As one staff stated (As cited in Grainger,S.(2008) ) "once friendly and supportive atmosphere no longer existed"(Para.30).Employees and managers could've used their Guanxi to benefit the organization, if only they felt valued enough. Recommendation : A saying in china ( as cited in Dou & Li, (2013) ) " once stranger, twice acquaintance, while thrice friend " (P.904),which is crystal clear. It could've been the best combination of foreign international experts and local Guanxi relationships , to form a highly competitive market. Yet the HI believed their expertise is sufficient.Gunaxi allows a member to offer a favor to a business or...
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...Is Wal-Mart's stated vision aligned with the needs of their stakeholders? Melissa Stacy MGT 499 MOD 1 Wal-Mart, the world largest and most successful corporation, also has the unflattering reputation of being so uncaring that it now symbolizes corporate social irresponsibility in the eyes of many Americans. Wal-Mart's problems with its own employees are not just perceptual but fundamentally due to the company's targeting and positioning choice: the delivery of always low prices to customers has meant that such stakeholder groups as employees have had to be squeezed. How did a company heralded as a hero as recently as in 2000 become a corporate monster only a few years later? The company's current predicament was not only foreseeable, but a logical consequence of its strategic choices, through its unbalanced approach to stakeholder commitment. Wal-Mart views its shareholders, consumers, and the community as their most important group of stakeholders, while employees are its second most important one. Wal-Mart has recently begun focusing on providing an explanation related for the company's poor performance with its self-declared second most important stakeholder group: its employees. Wal-Mart is being sued for what some workers say is widespread bad practice in forcing workers to do extra work "off the clock"- unpaid. Wal-Mart's policies forbid the practice, but managers under intense pressure to cut costs have allegedly resorted to it in order...
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