The Importance of Organizational Behavior
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
The Importance of Organizational Behavior
You are working for an organization that supports continuous professional development for employees and you are being partially reimbursed for your tuition expenses. However, your organization is experiencing some operational strain as a result of budget constraints caused by recent changes in the external environment.
You mention to your supervisor that you have enrolled in an organizational behavior course this term since you need your supervisor’s permission to get approved for reimbursement. Your boss would like some more explanation on why you should use company funds to enroll in this course, especially given some of the budget constraints that the organization has been experiencing. She had no issues with your previous enrollment in courses such as finance, data analytics, and writing since she sees these courses as enhancing your technical skills, but she wonders if organizational behavior is mostly common sense. Your supervisor is also not sure why you have to read about research methods in this course and especially in your introductory chapter.
Initial Post:
Create a discussion post that responds to the following issues:
What is organizational behavior?
Why is it important to study organizational behavior?
How will learning about organizational behavior research methods (section 1.4 of your main reading) help you better understand organizational behavior concepts?
In responding, we encourage you to:
Provide examples that relate to the actual organization you work for but please do not specifically identify your organization. If you are not currently in the workplace, this can be from previous work experience or any other organization that you have information on.
Glance through the list of module titles that we will be covering in this course and use that as part of your response. [Note: We realize that at this stage you have not dived into all the topics but the titles provide a quick snapshot of the issues that will be covered. For example, you can use the titles to connect your discussion to a challenge your organization might be facing.]
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 2 Discussion
Understanding the Impact of Culture on Organizational Performance and Decision Making
This course is focused on using organizational behavior concepts to enable better decision making in organizations. The key objective of this discussion question is to enable you to apply concepts from the learning material on organizational culture to a scenario within the organization that you work for. You will wear two hats, an employee and a hiring consultant, to provide business advice that facilitates better decision making. If you are not currently working, you can choose to refer to a former organization that you worked for or any other company that you are able to get sufficient information to frame your discussion posting.
Scenario
As part of your weekly one to one meeting with your supervisor at work, you are asked to briefly discuss some of the topics you are learning in your organizational behavior class. This week, you focus on issues related to organizational culture. This catches your supervisor’s attention because she is the head of a search committee within your organization, tasked with hiring a new vice president for operations. There is a debate among the committee members about whether to focus on recruiting from within the organization or whether to provide opportunities for external candidates to apply for the position.
After listening to your discussion of organizational culture, including hiring practices at Les Schwab Tires (Section 1.2 in your reading) and Google (Section 1.7 in your reading), your supervisor asks you to share some insights to the committee on the topic that is being debated. She would like you to wear two hats. First, that of an employee describing their organization and second as a hiring consultant providing a recommendation.
Scenario Questions
The following questions provide you with a framework to structure your response to the scenario. No doubt there are many variables that will influence this decision, but your task is to primarily focus on using the cultural context of your organization and the external environment in which it operates to frame a brief response to the two questions as part of your initial response post. Also, make sure to read what is expected in the ‘reply’ post so that you are aware that your peers will be using the information you provide to post a response.
Initial Post: From the point of view of an employee, offer the following response to your supervisor’s request.
Provide a very brief overview of your organization. To respect your supervisor’s time and maintain her attention, offer a profile that is 100 words max. Also, to maintain the confidentiality of your own organization. Please do not provide information that would specifically identify it.
Consider the following points:
What does your organization do?
Approximately how many employees work for your organization?
How old is your organization?
What is the approximate yearly budget of your organization?
Explain which cultural profile category your organization (or your department) would fall under based on the various Dimensions of Cultural Profiles (DCP’s) discussed in sections 1.9-1.11 of your reading. If you feel that none of the categories match your organization then you can create a cultural profile that you feel would categorize your organization. You should also provide a brief description of the external environment in which your company operates. (Use about 300 words to explain this to your supervisor.)
Reply Post: From the point of view of a hiring consultant, provide the following advice to two of your peers.
Based on the background provided for their organizations, their cultural profiles, and the external environment in which it operates, discuss whether you would recommend hiring from within the organization or hiring externally.
To ensure the utility of your recommendations, the guidance you offer should be limited to 300 – 400 words maximum.
A well-crafted recommendation would incorporate references to the details provided in the profiles with direct linkages to your advice.To strengthen the credibility of your recommendations, cite evidence to support it.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 3 Discussion
Understanding Global Cultural Diversity in Organizations
Why is it important to understand the culture of a country? In this case, why China?
According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, total U.S. trade with China in 2018 was $737.1 billion. Exports to China were $557.9 billion. China is currently the largest trading partner of two-way goods with the U.S. and is the largest supplier of U.S. imports as of 2018. American business connection to China is critically strong. The U.S. in many ways is dependent on Chinese business and production. Thousands of American businesses rely on sound Chinese/American relations that support American business endeavors abroad. Doing business in China requires U.S. businessmen and women to understand cultural nuances that are ingrained in Chinese ways of life and conducting business.
Review: ?Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. (Links to an external site.)?(You can use this link to compare cultural aspects of both the United States and China.)
Scenario
Your company’s training manager has read your earlier suggestions (based on work in Module 2) and is impressed with the quality of your research. He is about to start some training for employees relocating to China as expatriates for three years and he has reached out to you for some guidance in terms of cultural differences. You realize that it is an important assignment and China’s culture is different from American culture. The training manager wants to ensure that he is sending the right people and wants to make sure that this team is adequately prepared for both the task and acclimating respectfully to the culture. Create a discussion post that responds to the following two sections.
Scenario Questions
Work with your classmates to produce high-quality analysis and recommendations.
Initial Post: Create a discussion post that addresses the following:
Section 1:
In this section reflect on the case scenario presented and respond to the following two questions:
Using the Big 5 Personality Traits Theory, what personality traits should the candidates being assigned to China have? Think specifically about Chinese culture as it compares to American culture.
What information would you provide in pre-departure training?
Section 2:
In this section, reflect on the organization you work for (or an organization that you have worked for previously).
What practices and training exist in your organization that promote global cultural awareness and appreciation?
Note: Please continue to maintain the anonymity of your organization by not disclosing information identifying it. It is ok to share organizational purpose and departmental composition. If you are not currently in the workplace, you may provide answers based on previous employment experiences.
Reply Post: After reading the proposed cultural preparation plans and reflections posted by your peers, review?Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (Links to an external site.) once again. Consider their insights and recommendations regarding cultural comparison and best cultural acclimation practices. Post at least two reflections for your peers that map their insights and observations to your experiences in your own organization. Answer the following questions:
What are the similarities and differences between your organizations in terms of recognizing different cultures?
How is this manifested?
What training ideas could benefit your organization and theirs?
To ensure the utility of your recommendations, the guidance you offer should be limited to 300 – 400 words maximum.
Your well-crafted recommendation would incorporate references to the details provided in the profiles with direct linkages to your advice.
To strengthen the credibility of your recommendations, cite evidence to support it.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 4 Discussion
Decision Making in Organizations
It is often assumed that only leaders can and should make decisions within organizations. In truth, decisions are made regularly by people at all levels of the organization. Even though strategic decisions are often made by leaders, the voices and input of people throughout the organization are critical in making these decisions. In addition, many leadership models acknowledge the importance of empowering the voices of managers and front-line employees to enhance employee engagement and receive the most accurate information to make informed, rational decisions, rather than making intuitive decisions with less information.
There are many variables in decision making in organizations. Use the identified questions as a framework to structure your post for this discussion. Your task is to analyze decision-making structures in your organization by answering four key questions. To be fully prepared, make sure to read what is expected in the ‘reply’ post so that you are aware of how your peers will use the information you provide to respond to you.?
Scenario
During your weekly meeting, your supervisor discusses some recent operational decisions as well as the strategic and tactical rationales behind them. She is puzzled about the weak reception by front-line employees that she believes has resulted in outcomes that are far less impactful than predicted. Because of the updates you provide about all that you are learning in this course, she asks you to provide a profile of decision-making processes in your organization.
Scenario Questions
The following questions provide you with a framework to structure your response to the scenario. No doubt there are many variables that will influence this decision, but your task is to primarily focus on using the cultural context of your organization and the external environment in which it operates to frame a brief response to the following question as part of your initial response post. Also, make sure to read what is expected in the ‘reply’ post so that you are aware that your peers will be using the information you provide to post a response.
Initial Post: Strategic, tactical, and operational decisions are addressed on page 3.3 of your webtext. From the point of view of an employee, offer the following response to your supervisor’s request.
How are strategic, tactical, and operational decisions made in your organization? Make sure to address all three facets while responding to the following questions:
Who is involved in the process?
Who makes the final decision?
How are these decisions connected to or evidence of the organization’s culture?
What has been the result of these decision-making structures within your organization?
Note: Please continue to maintain the anonymity of your organization by not disclosing information identifying it. It is ok to share organizational purpose and departmental composition. If you are not currently in the workplace, you may provide answers based on previous employment experiences.
Reply Post: From the point of view of a hiring consultant, provide advice to two of your peers.
Your supervisor forwarded your report to organizational leadership. The team is interested in attempting to strengthen and improve the decision-making process and outcomes for the change they intended. They hire you as an implementation consultant. Your job is to review the analyses provided by your peers in their initial posts and craft alternative approaches. Provide additional insight and facts that will help improve the decision-making processes in their organizations. It is critical that you structure an alternative architecture for the decision-making processes intended to ignite impactful change.
To ensure the utility of your recommendations, the guidance you offer should be limited to 300 – 400 words maximum.
A well-crafted recommendation would incorporate references to the details provided in the profiles with direct linkages to your advice.
To strengthen the credibility of your recommendations, cite evidence to support it.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 5 Discussion
Management, Teams Building, and Group Dynamics
Did you know that team management and member selection can directly impact an organization’s financial bottom-line? Even simply considering personalities before putting together a team could make or break important projects. According to Gino (2015) from the Harvard Business Review, studies show that teams led by extroverts have been found to be high performing, but only if the employees on the team are more passive. Teams led by introverts have been shown to be more effective when members of the team are more proactive and extroverted. There are many factors to be considered when forming effective teams. Please refer to Chapter 4 Management (4.0-4.18) for your responses.
Scenario
Your weekly conversation with your supervisor involves a new manager within your organization. He has been tasked with the formation and leadership of a team assigned to work on a critical project. Project success represents potential revenues in excess of five million dollars. The upfront investment in this project is significant and the stakes are high, but if it works, the return on investment is worth the initial cost.
Leadership wants to ensure that the right people are working on this high-profile project as many departments throughout the organization will be impacted by it. They have asked your supervisor to support the new manager as he builds the project team. Leadership is anticipating justification for team selection before proceeding.
Scenario Questions
Your supervisor has asked you to use what you are learning about management to draft guidelines to assist the project manager as he formulates the team.
Initial Post: Post your recommendations using the following framework:
There are many factors to consider when putting together a successful team. In your recommendation, supply your perspective as to the three most important factors to consider when building this team. Strengthen your assertion with supporting material from the module readings and from external resources that you find.
In your opinion, what factors need to be considered when determining the effectiveness of this team?
Thinking about your experience with teams, whether as a leader or member, what were the ingredients for team success?
Reply Post: From the point of view of a hiring consultant, provide advice to two of your peers.
Wearing the hat of the new manager tasked with forming this team, reflect on the recommendations of your peers. Outline additional insights you have gained about team building and group dynamics from their posts.
In what ways does their rationale make sense?
Recommend other factors that would strengthen their plan. Include your rationale.
How would you integrate their plan with yours to build a strong team?
To manage your reply, use the following parameters:
Ensure the utility of your recommendations by offering a reply limited to 300 – 400 words maximum.
Incorporate references connecting their details to your reply.
Strengthen the credibility of your recommendations by citing supporting evidence.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 6 Discussion
Communications and Conflict Resolution
Why do we still make the wrong decisions for our organizations despite having teams and organizations full of professional, experienced, and talented people? How is possible that senior leaders become so disconnected from the people they lead, or so out of touch with what is happening in the organization, that monumentally poor and costly decisions even occur? Surely if others in the organization have the answers, their problems would be solved? Engaging employees in critical upward communication becomes more challenging the further removed leaders become from their people and processes for several reasons.
Your organization has decided to invest in new technology to improve processes and streamline communication. The technology company said that its new software could do all that the company needed and more. But you and other employees who use the current systems and understand them also know that they did not provide enough information about the new system to make the investment. Employees at various levels disagree with the investment. Some even created other options for review by the leadership team but were dismissed. Desperate to fix the problems that the organization is having, little consideration was paid to the concerns of the employees about the system and the four-million-dollar investment. The leadership is accusing people of standing in the way out of fear of change and trepidations about job loss. Some leadership team members are even referring to these people as, “the resistance.” ?
Employees have stopped sharing critical upward feedback because they do not want to be at odds with leadership. They are designed to go with the flow and comply, regardless of the issues they know exist.
Now that the investment has been made and the change is being rolled out, it is apparent that the new technology is not suitable for meeting the organization’s needs. Time and money have been wasted.
Tourish (2005) explains two critical theories in the article Critical Upward Communication: Ten Commandments for Improving Strategy and Decision Making: The Automatic Vigilance Effect and the Ingratiation Effect.
Initial Post
The current status of this investment and the subsequent fall-out with employees is the main part of your conversation in your weekly meeting with your supervisor. You are eager to explain what went wrong by using the Automatic Vigilance Effect and Ingratiation Effect theories (Tourish, 2005).
In this discussion, you will contribute an analysis of the situation for your supervisor. For the purpose of this discussion, ‘your’ organization is the organization described in the discussion prompt.
Explain the Automatic Vigilance Effect and the Ingratiation Effect through the lens of how they have been manifested in your organization.
Identify reasons for the behaviors that are afflicting your organization.
Reply Post
To apply all that you have learned from your peers’ posts, Chapter 5 in your Soomo text, and the Tourish article, step in as the supervisor on the receiving end of the analyses that have been posted and improve them by drafting replies offering them the following:
Brief description of practices that can be put in place to ensure leaders do not resort to maladaptive communication failures in the future.
Map the behaviors and consequences described in your peers’ posts to your proposed solutions. Compare and contrast the outcomes that have disrupted the organization with the potential outcomes stemming from your interventions.
Ensure the utility of your replies by:
Limiting your replies to 300 – 400 words maximum.
Linking details provided by your peers directly to your advice.
Citing evidence to strengthen your recommendations.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 7 Discussion
Performance Management and Employee Engagement
Several factors drive employee engagement. These influential factors include leadership, culture, communication, diversity, work-life balance, acknowledgment, to name a handful. Employee engagement drives the organizational performance that influences the bottom-line which ultimately determines organizational success or failure. Consequently, quality employee engagement and morale are leading factors in organizational success.
Scenario
For this discussion, consider a scenario wherein a company has hired you as a business development consultant. This large business needs help in terms of understanding why they continually maintain both low scores on their employee satisfaction surveys and high levels of turnover. As a consultant, you know that many factors contribute to employee satisfaction and employee engagement.
Initial Post
Supply a recommendation that addresses the following:
Discuss three key factors in employee engagement on which leadership should focus.
Highlight some practices that leadership can implement to improve the productive impact of each of the three factors that you have identified.
Make sure to provide a rationale for each of your recommendations that include cited evidence.
Reply Post
Consider the recommendations and evidence supplied by your classmates.
Thinking about your own experiences at work, share additional insights you have gained about employee engagement and employee satisfaction. Also, consider any limitations of the suggestions that have been provided-for instance are there ideas that work in theory but would be difficult to implement in practice.
Offer your perspective as to how their recommendations might influence your organization and work experience?
Keep in mind the following parameters while crafting your posts and replies:
Limit your posts and replies to 300 – 400 words maximum to ensure their utility.
Incorporate references to the details provided by your peers with direct linkages to your advice.
Strengthen the credibility of your recommendations by citing evidence to support them.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 8 Discussion
Understanding the Importance of Organizational Behavior
How can understanding organizational behavior make a difference within an organization? Is it necessary for employees to know the principles within organizations and what might be the results if they do or do not have that understanding? As a student in organizational behavior, you now have the answer to those questions.
Initial Post:
In Module 1, you outlined how you justified taking this course as an employee of a struggling organization. Organizational behavior sounded far too vague and your boss was not instantly convinced that it was worth the company funds to pay for such a course. Now that the course is over, your boss would like a follow-up and a report on the following:
What are the 3-4 of the greatest take-aways from this course? (You will need to refer to specific topics covered in this course.)
What things have you learned that could be immediately applied to your organization at either the individual, group, or organizational level that would improve its current processes or behavior?
Is there a single most important factor in organizational behavior? Justify your answer with relevant examples.
Reply Post:
In your responses to classmates, share additional insights you have gained the importance of various elements of organizational behavior after reading their posts.
To ensure the utility of your recommendations, the guidance you offer should be limited to 300 – 400 words maximum.
A well-crafted recommendation would incorporate references to the details provided in the profiles with direct linkages to your advice.
To strengthen the credibility of your recommendations, cite evidence to support it.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 2 Assignment
Organizational Culture Essay
Your supervisor was incredibly pleased with the insights you provided the hiring committee. She has now tasked you with drafting a report on the topics you have presented to her. She has carved out 20 minutes to read through your report, making it critical for you to be mindful of your use of time to make an impact.
ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS
Your task is to use the following questions as guidelines for your report, which you will submit to your supervisor. The Section numbers next to the question refer to relevant reading from your Soomo e-text.
What is the purpose of understanding organizational culture (Section 1.8)? (Supply a 100-word maximum statement of purpose in your own words.)
Discuss any one factor that has been important to the creation of your organization’s culture
[Founders’ value, external influences, a combination of both or a different factor- Section 1.12]
(Supply a 200-word maximum discussion.)
Briefly discuss your experience in relation to how your organization has or has not maintained its culture based on your onboarding experience (Section 1.15). (Supply a 400-word maximum discussion citing examples and succinctly explaining your interpretation.)
Discuss any one method in which your organization communicates its culture either through visual methods, rituals, space, or stories. If none of these apply, you can refer to any other example of how culture is communicated. Do you agree that these external symbols reflect the underlying values and assumptions of your organization? (Section 1.17-1.18). (Supply a 400-word maximum discussion to answer this question).
Evolve
Describe any one aspect of your organization’s culture that you would like to see changed or strengthened. Outline how you would propose making this happen using any one of the six steps to culture change provided in your reading in Section 1.19 Creating Culture Change of your reading. (Supply a 500-word maximum discussion to answer this question).
Where needed, strengthen your report by citing examples.
Compile your work as a .doc?or .docx?file type. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. Save your analysis with the filename YourLastName_Module 2 OrganizationalCultureAssignment. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Submit Assignment.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”
Turnitin®
This course has Turnitin® fully integrated into the course dropbox. This means that you should?only submit your assignments to the dropbox below.?Please do not submit your assignment directly to Turnitin.com.
Once submitted, your assignment will be evaluated by Turnitin® automatically. You will be able to view an Originality Report within minutes of your first submission that will show how much of your work has been identified as similar to other sources such as websites, textbooks, or other student papers. Use your Originality Report as a learning tool to identify areas of your assignment that you may not have cited appropriately.?You may resubmit your assignment through this dropbox as many times as you need to check to see if you have made improvements, until the due date of the assignment.?However, once you have made your first submission, you will need to wait 24 hours after each subsequent submission to receive a new Originality Report. Plan accordingly as you draft your assignment. Once the due date has passed, your assignment submission will be considered final.
This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 PM ET. Be sure to review the Organizational Culture Essay Rubric below for evaluation details.
This activity is used to assess one or more general education career competencies (GECC). You will see additional rows in your rubric from your instructor along with assessments of Above/Meets/Does Not Meet Expectations for each competency. These rows do not factor into your grade.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 4 Assignment
Decision Making for Global Expatriates Essay
The training manager that you assisted in Module 3 has returned to you for further assistance. He was quite impressed with the research and profile you offered for making expatriate assignments to China. He is asking for your guidance to be able to make better global expatriate assignments.
To perform this service for him, you need to apply Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to organizational behavior in the United States and a country of your choosing. To obtain a greater depth of information about your chosen country and its cultural practices you need to draw from at least two additional external scholarly references as well as the Hofstede model. A scholarly reference consists of journal articles from the Excelsior College library or Google Scholar. You may also use websites that are from .edu, .org, or .gov. Please avoid using .com websites. To be thorough, your analysis needs to include a variety of relevant areas such as business, communications, social, and familial, etc.
Before You Begin
Review the assigned articles:
Sanderson, G. (2007). The strengths and limitations of using essentialist cultural theory to understand international students (Links to an external site.) (Doctoral dissertation, ISANA International Education Association).
Signorini, P., Wiesemes, R., & Murphy, R. (2009). Developing alternative frameworks for exploring intercultural learning: a critique of Hofstede’s cultural difference model. (Links to an external site.) Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 253-264.
Taras, V., Rowney, J., & Steel, P. (2009). Half a century of measuring culture: Review of approaches, challenges, and limitations based on the analysis of 121 instruments for quantifying culture. Journal of International Management, 15(4), 357-373.
ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS (To ensure that you have enough time to prepare this essay, it is being assigned here in Module 3. You will submit it in Module 4)
Being that you already analyzed China in the Module 3 discussion forum, you need to select another country via Hofstede Insights: Country Comparison. (Links to an external site.) To compile this additional analysis for the training manager, synthesize what you learned from Hofstede’s website about both the?U.S.?and the country you selected by providing the following:
Section A
Provide a comparison of at least three cultural examples of your chosen country with the U.S. For example, a handshake is appropriate as a business greeting in the U.S. In China, however, one might bow, and a kiss on either cheek would be extended as a greeting in Spain. (about 300 words)
Justification for three recommendations you have made for training US expatriates to work in the country you have selected. (about 400 words)
Evolve
Section B
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are a useful tool in terms of providing insights into cultural differences across the globe. Nonetheless, this framework has a number of limitations and it is important for managers to be aware of these limitations as part of decision making. In this section, you should discuss:
Any two limitations of Hofstede’s model. (Hint: see the included readings. In particular pay attention to the discussion on pp. 4-7 of Sanderson (2007). (about 300 words)
How these limitations will influence anyone of your recommendations in Section A-Question 2. (about 300 words)
Where needed, strengthen your report by citing examples.
Tips for Students
Historically, students that have done well on this assignment have conducted outside research on cultural practices of both the chosen country and the US and have compared them side by side in each of those examples. It is important to provide creative and insightful comparisons of the same scenario for both countries and to include current issues where relevant. Thinking about things that are relevant to the time frame that someone will be abroad:
What does it mean for their families?
How does this manifest itself in the country of comparison?
It is beneficial for you to use fewer generic answers and instead, provide more details that indicate that thought critically about the subject and your chosen country. Generic answers receive lower grades.
You will also notice that Part B, focuses on limitations. We want to ensure that students are aware of theory but at the same time that students can consider the decision-making implications of these limitations.
Your analysis should be approximately 1200-1400 words, have a title page, and include a minimum of 3 references formatted in?APA?style.
Compile your work as a .doc?or .docx?file type. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. Save your analysis with the filename “YourLastName_Module 4_GlobalExpatriatesAssignment. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Submit Assignment.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”
Turnitin®
This course has Turnitin® fully integrated into the course dropbox. This means that you should?only submit your assignments to the dropbox below.?Please do not submit your assignment directly to Turnitin.com.
Once submitted, your assignment will be evaluated by Turnitin® automatically. You will be able to view an Originality Report within minutes of your first submission that will show how much of your work has been identified as similar to other sources such as websites, textbooks, or other student papers. Use your Originality Report as a learning tool to identify areas of your assignment that you may not have cited appropriately.?You may resubmit your assignment through this dropbox as many times as you need to check to see if you have made improvements, until the due date of the assignment.?However, once you have made your first submission, you will need to wait 24 hours after each subsequent submission to receive a new Originality Report. Plan accordingly as you draft your assignment. Once the due date has passed, your assignment submission will be considered final.
This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 PM ET. Be sure to review the Decision-Making for Global Expatriates Essay Rubric below for evaluation details.
This activity is used to assess one or more general education career competencies (GECC). You will see additional rows in your rubric from your instructor along with assessments of Above/Meets/Does Not Meet Expectations for each competency. These rows do not factor into your grade.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 6 Assignment
Decision-Making in Crisis GECC
For this assignment, you will be asked to read a case study and then answer some questions related to the case.?This case deals with making decisions under pressure, especially when information is insufficient.
Before You Begin
Read Sink or SWIM (downloadable pdf) or MIT: Sink or SWIM website. (Links to an external site.)
The Case
How could a sunny February afternoon take such a turn for the worse? The clock ticked in the MIT Sloan Student Life Office (SLO), where the three Sloan Women in Management (SWIM) club co-presidents and two conference directors were gathered. SWIM’s 3rd annual conference, aptly named “Dare to Fail: Taking Risks When it Matters Most,” which was 11 months in the making, had been scheduled to take place the next day. A winter storm was looming, with weather predictions varying widely from three to 50 inches of snow in the next 48 hours. It was almost 2:00 pm and a decision had to be made – setup was slated to begin in minutes, and speakers were boarding their flights for Boston. Should the conference be canceled, modified, or go forward as planned?
SLO Associate Director Marco Esquandolas looked at the five women seated in front of him and asked, “Ladies, what is your final call?”
At 1:30 pm on Thursday, February 7, SWIM’s three co-presidents and two conference directors, who had been in varying states of misalignment and frustration for so long, met with Marco in his office to sort through their options. Weather reports had been monitored from different networks. Now, there was every indication that a storm would hit Boston at some point, but most networks expected the storm to hit after 12:00 pm on Friday, while others said it could be as late as Friday night. It was simply too early to tell. The unprecedented decision before them was whether to cancel the conference for a potentially monstrous snowstorm when there was not a cloud in the sky or a snowflake on the ground.
Janet and Merrill collected a status update of where each speaker was, and when planes would begin taking off toward Boston. They confirmed that all 15 speakers were unfazed by weather reports and were ready to attend the conference the next day, regardless of the potential snowstorm. One had already changed her ticket to fly in earlier to avoid any airport closings, and a second could not be reached as she was already on a flight from London.
At precisely 2:00 pm, vendors would begin setting up the venue and SWIM would be liable for the costs. Further, if MIT closed, the rental fees would triple from a one-day rental to daily rentals through the weekend, when the rentals could be picked up. Lea did a back of the envelope calculation and quickly saw that if the conference was canceled after vendors arrived, the costs could increase significantly. The catering company had already warned her that it was too late to cancel the perishable food items that had been prepared for the conference – it was unclear what percentage of the $13,000 catering bill would be recoverable. Lea knew what her vote was, but she was curious to see which way her two co-presidents were leaning.
Rescheduling was not an option for the team. With only three months left before the conference leadership team graduated it would be impossible to find a date that worked for all, or even most, of the speakers. Additionally, because the venue had no availability in March, April, or May, the team would need to find a new location for a rescheduled conference. They would in effect be planning an entirely new conference in one-quarter of the time it took to plan the initial conference. For these reasons, they knew rescheduling would not work.
The MIT administration had not yet closed the Institute and would not comment on any possibilities. MIT rarely closed its doors, but if it did no events would be allowed on campus, including the conference.
What would happen if the conference was not canceled, and MIT closed later that night?
What if the conference was canceled, MIT did not close, and the storm only hit Friday night?
What would be the fallout with attendees and corporate sponsors?
Would SWIM’s reputation be impacted?
Would they be able to secure sponsorship funds in the future?
What if attendees did show up for the conference? Was there a risk of them being snowed in?
If the team opted to cancel the conference, would they be forced to give back ticket revenue?
If so, how would that affect the bottom line?
Could they really give up on the event for which they had sacrificed and devoted a significant amount of time?
The entire conference revolved around the theme of coming to the brink of failure and still finding a way to succeed. With graduation around the corner, there would be no second chances.
Given that most weather forecasts suggested that snowfall would only begin at 12:00 pm Friday, and would not escalate until early evening, Merrill began championing the idea of a half-day conference.
Could they run the events concurrently instead of sequentially, giving attendees the option to choose which speaker to hear?
Since the event space would be set up for one speaker at a time, would it even be feasible?
Would attendees show up for a conference that only lasted three hours?
If not, would low attendance be disrespectful to the high-profile speakers?
The conference directors and co-presidents narrowed it down to three choices:
Cancel the conference before 2:00 pm, thus saving operational costs that would otherwise be incurred.
Hold a half-day conference with concurrent speakers.
Having more accurate forecasts and updates on speaker travel plans, wait until Thursday night to decide.
In his facilitator role, Marco Esquandolas remained an impartial observer, telling them,
The way I look at clubs on campus is that it is your chance to practice management. You put this all together. You know best if you should cancel or go forward. In all my years here, this situation is unprecedented. If it is canceled, it will be devastating. If there is a storm, it will be devastating. If there is no storm, it will be devastating. I will support whatever decision you make.
The women discussed their options at a rapid pace, knowing the minutes were winding down.
How would speakers react if the conference had to be canceled after they had already flown in?
Would companies expect sponsorship money to be returned?
What was best for the safety of attendees?
How much of the setup cost would be sunk if they postponed the decision?
If first-year students never got to see a conference executed, what would a cancelation mean for the legacy of SWIM?
What alternate venues could accommodate the conference if MIT closed?
Would it even snow?
The only thing they were sure of was that whatever decision they made would have a long-lasting impact on the event and organization that they were so dedicated to.
Case Analysis Instructions
The SWIM team has hired you as a consultant to monitor, analyze, and make recommendations that would steer the sustainability of the organization. You have been present during the decision-making process for their conference. They have asked you to present your assessment and recommendations. Your report is organized around the following framework.
Section A
Identify areas of strength. Include your reasoning for classifying the areas as strengths. Offer some suggestions on how they can expand these areas further. (300 words)
Offer an analysis of their conference process and provide recommendations that would help improve their process. Provide rationale(s) for your choice(s). (400 words)
Identify 3-5 consequences of the resolution(s) you recommend. (300 words)
Offer suggestions on processes SWIM can use to develop contingency plans in the future? (400 words)
Explain why you believe it is difficult to engage in decision-making in organizations. (300 words)
Notes for Students
Students who have produced high-quality essays in the past cover the following:
decision-making models,
the need for contingency planning, and
risk assessment, with details of what that might look like for this organization.
High-quality essays offer suggestions for contingency planning or risk assessment tools that can be used. They cover a variety of reasons for challenging group dynamics.
Your work in Module 5 will be helpful as you analyzed team and group dynamics in depth! It is critical that your rationale is provided based on research and reasoning from the models and theories provided.
Submission
Your analysis should be approximately 1700-2000 words (4-6 pages), have a title page, and include a minimum of 3 references formatted in?APA?style.
Compile your work as a .doc?or .docx?file type. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. Save your analysis with the filename “YourLastName_Module 6_SWIM_Case_Assignment. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Submit Assignment.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”
Turnitin®
This course has Turnitin® fully integrated into the course dropbox. This means that you should?only submit your assignments to the dropbox below.?Please do not submit your assignment directly to Turnitin.com.
Once submitted, your assignment will be evaluated by Turnitin® automatically. You will be able to view an Originality Report within minutes of your first submission that will show how much of your work has been identified as similar to other sources such as websites, textbooks, or other student papers. Use your Originality Report as a learning tool to identify areas of your assignment that you may not have cited appropriately.?You may resubmit your assignment through this dropbox as many times as you need to check to see if you have made improvements, until the due date of the assignment.?However, once you have made your first submission, you will need to wait 24 hours after each subsequent submission to receive a new Originality Report. Plan accordingly as you draft your assignment. Once the due date has passed, your assignment submission will be considered final.
This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 PM ET. Be sure to review the Decision-Making in a Crisis Case Study Rubric below for evaluation details.
This activity is used to assess one or more general education career competencies (GECC). You will see additional rows in your rubric from your instructor along with assessments of Above/Meets/Does Not Meet Expectations for each competency. These rows do not factor into your grade.
BUS311 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Module 8 Assignment
Strategic Planning
For this assignment, you will be asked to read a case study and then answer some questions related to the case. This case deals with assessing and evaluating programs within an organization.
Before You Begin
Read the Case Study: Strategic Planning for a Youth Services Organization below or download the pdf version. Download download the pdf version.
Robert Morris University Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management: The client needed upgrades to its governance, leadership, and fundraising. The Bayer Center helped them transition in all three areas – now well-equipped for the future.
The Client
The client was a youth-serving nonprofit (among the largest in the state) with administrative headquarters and 3 regional offices. It had a longstanding history and wide community recognition as well as stable and successful leadership -an executive director who had served for 37 years and who had grown the organization’s budget by almost 30 million, as well as an energetic and visionary second-in-command.
However, the organization did not have a history of advanced planning. They also were somewhat constrained by hierarchical decision-making and leadership structures. Its board, while filled with capable and gifted people, was largely following the executive director’s lead. Furthermore, its funding stream was almost entirely from the government and needed diversification.
These issues were taking on increased urgency as the executive director was considering retirement. After discussion, the organization contracted with the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management for a strategic planning process that would focus on these issues.
Bayer Center Intervention
Bayer Center staff started the process with an assessment, which collects information from a variety of different perspectives in order to get a full and updated picture of the organization. Board members, staff, and clients (children and families) participated in focus groups and one-on-one discussions. Because of the state-level profile of this organization, the lead consultant also interviewed a variety of top policymakers on their perceptions of the agency.
The picture that developed was somewhat unexpected. Before the assessment, the organization didn’t feel confident in its reputation at high levels – overly focused on any mediocre result. The assessment revealed both great concerns over enormous needs for the target audience as well as huge confidence in the organization and a desire for it to take on much more.
As the planning process continued, board committees formed to guide progress towards key goals. Each goal had accompanying tasks, responsibilities, and timelines, which helped communicate expected progress as well as keep everyone accountable for results.
The Result
The project went through phases of consultant engagement but maintained a strong connection over the course of 3 years. That allowed not only for the strategic planning process but support and troubleshooting of the implementation stage.
Over the course of the contract, the executive director’s plans for transition, which had been on a frequently-shifting timeline, became firm. Both director and organization received support in navigating the difficult path through letting go and navigating an internal promotion with integrity.
Board members shifted from passivity into true governance. The relationship between the board and director matured, becoming collaborative and transparent. The assessment work crystallized the organization’s understanding of its potential and possibilities waiting for their involvement. The intervention moved them from a place of strength to a place of power, with increased ability to vet opportunities according to strategic objectives and to leverage their talents for increased community outcomes.
Case Analysis Instructions
After reading this case, provide answers to the following questions:
What strategies used in this case do you believe can be used by other organizations? (400 words)
If you had to consult with this organization, what 3 recommendations would you offer them on what to learn from this incident and apply it to subsequent issues with which they are dealing? (400 words)
Identify 3 reasons you believe board members shifted into “true governance.” (400 words)
Submission
Your analysis should be approximately 1200-1400 words, have a title page, and include a minimum of 3 references formatted in?APA?style.
Compile your work as a .doc?or .docx?file type. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. Save your analysis with the filename “YourLastName_Module 7_YouthServices_Case_Assignment. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Upload Submission.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”
Turnitin®
This course has Turnitin® fully integrated into the course dropbox. This means that you should?only submit your assignments to the dropbox below.?Please do not submit your assignment directly to Turnitin.com.
Once submitted, your assignment will be evaluated by Turnitin® automatically. You will be able to view an Originality Report within minutes of your first submission that will show how much of your work has been identified as similar to other sources such as websites, textbooks, or other student papers. Use your Originality Report as a learning tool to identify areas of your assignment that you may not have cited appropriately.?You may resubmit your assignment through this dropbox as many times as you need to check to see if you have made improvements, until the due date of the assignment.?However, once you have made your first submission, you will need to wait 24 hours after each subsequent submission to receive a new Originality Report. Plan accordingly as you draft your assignment. Once the due date has passed, your assignment submission will be considered final.
This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 PM ET. Be sure to review the Strategic Planning Case Study Rubric below for evaluation details.
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