Create an online site where team members can collaborate, exchange ideas, and motivate one another. The team should have a shared online work space that all members can access 24 hours a day.

/in /by

Virtual Teams: Making It Work

Virtual teams are composed of employees who are physically dispersed throughout the nation or around the world. They are linked by various forms of electronic technology. Face-to-face contact is usually minimal or nonexistent. Virtual teams face several challenges: time zone differences, which make quick information exchanges difficult, and cultural miscues, which can cause misunderstandings. When teams don’t meet in person, its less likely they will develop the kind of chemistry common to productive teams that have face-to-face meetings. Many virtual teams are in continuous danger of becoming dysfunctional.

Recent research has identified certain traits and practices common to most virtual teams. Here are a few important rules for making these teams productive.

  • Choose a few team members who already know each other. This will speed up the process of building networks among team members. Invest in online resources that help all team members quickly learn about one another.
  • Ensure the task is meaningful to team members and the company. Assign tasks that are challenging and interesting.
  • The virtual team should include “boundary spanners,” persons who have many connections to useful people outside of the team.
  • Develop a team mission statement along with teamwork expectations, project goals, and deadlines.
  • Create an online site where team members can collaborate, exchange ideas, and motivate one another. The team should have a shared online work space that all members can access 24 hours a day.
  • Encourage frequent communication and try to reach agreement about preferred communication tools.
  • If you are a virtual team leader, find ways to mark team progress toward goals.

Instructions: Answer the questions below for this assignment. Keep in mind the information preceding the instructions when preparing your paper, and ensure that you follow the format for this assignment provided immediately following the Questions.

Questions

  1. Which of the five dysfunctions of a team (presented in Chapter 12, Figure 12.3) would be the greatest barriers to virtual team productivity? Defend your answer.Figure 12.3

    Five Dysfunctions of a Team

    Patrick Lencioni believes that effective teamwork is not common in most organizations. Too often teams fall prey to five interrelated dysfunctions:

    Absence of Trust: Trust is the foundation of effective teamwork.

    Fear of Conflict: Teams that lack trust are not capable of engaging in open, unfiltered debate.

    Lack of Commitment: When team members fail to voice their views openly during passionate debate, they rarely buy in and commit to decisions.

    Avoidance of Accountability: Without commitment and buy in, team members are often hesitant to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.

    Inattention to Results: Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where team members put their own needs above the collective goals of the team.

  2. What can be done to avoid information overload when the virtual team is made up of 25 to 30 members?Write a 1-2 page paper regarding your findings, using APA format, and submit no later then Sunday, midnight. Your paper must have an introduction, body, and conclusion. In addition, papers longer than 2 pages will not be read after the second page. As such, please ensure that all questions are answered within the first two pages, as your grade will be based on the first two pages received. Your paper must include a reference page, title page, and in-text citations for all listed references in accordance with the APA manual, 6th edition chapters 6 (citation formatting) and chapter 7 (reference/source formatting).

    Please support your ideas, arguments, and opinions with independent research, include at least three (3) supporting peer-reviewed references or sources (do NOT use your textbook as one of the three required references, Wikipedia, encyclopedias, unknown, undated, or anonymous sources, such as websites), include a reference section, and cite all listed references properly in your paper, in accordance with the 6th edition of the APA manual, chapters 6 & 7.

Describe the various Training and Development activities at your organization. Include in your analysis, information on: – Performance Review Processes (i.e. Performance Appraisals)

/in /by

Term Project – MSHR 630 1) Company name: Dollar General

Describe the various Training and Development activities at your organization. Include in your analysis, information on: – Performance Review Processes (i.e. Performance Appraisals) – Training and Development Programs – Disciplinary Processes 2) Expand your initial paper to include: – Leadership Development Programs – Succession Planning – Organizational Re-structuring – Reductions in Force – Unionization (if applicable) 3) Make at least 3 recommendations for ways in which to improve any of processes listed for #1 or #2 4) Evaluation of the recommendations – how will you know if your recommendations were successful or not. This section should list and explain all metrics and measures used and should identify both quantitative and qualitative metrics that should be included.

*Resource material should be used for items #3 and #4 **One comprehensive paper should be submitted that includes the initial analysis and items 2-4. The first version of this paper will be due on Day 1 of Week 6, with the final version being due on Day 7 of Week 6.

*This paper should be in a formal APA format, which includes a title page, abstract and full reference page. All resources should be included and cited according to APA format.Finally, what are your thoughts in terms of strategies that unions could utilize to gain back importance in the U.S. workforce and are there any international concepts, practices, etc. that U.S. unions should consider?

Evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s HR policies and processes that are designed to promote a diverse workforce.

/in /by

Imagine that you are the Director of the HR Department at your current organization or an organization with which you are familiar. You are responsible for delegating duties to your team for the selection, development, and management of both the new and current employees. You must ensure that your organization is diverse and follows all employment laws.

(Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of these assignments. In your original work, you may use aspects of existing processes from either your current or a former place of employment. However, you must remove any and all identifying information that would enable someone to discern the organization[s] that you have used.)

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

  1. Outline one (1) job interview process, and document the methods that you must use to select the right person for available positions. Determine two (2) employment laws that you must consider in the process in question, and examine the key ramifications of the organization’s lack of enforcement of said laws.
  2. Suppose your same organization decides on an unconventional workforce comprised primarily of independent contractors and temporary workers. Predict three (3) issues that you may encounter in building relationships with each type of worker. Next, examine two (2) laws that you must follow during the relationship building process, and specify the manner in which each law would help in the relationship building process.
  3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s HR policies and processes that are designed to promote a diverse workforce. Next, outline one (1) strategy for the organization that recognizes affirmative action. Include a plan to mitigate both the glass ceiling effect and reverse discrimination within your organization. Support your response with at least two (2) examples that illustrate the major benefits of the plan to the organization.
  4. Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Discuss a group property that likely affects the performance of the packaging team. Show how Mr. Lim can improve the performance of the team by applying one

/in /by

Case Study :

Homemade Food Company

Mr. Lim has just joined Homemade Food Company, a company manufacturing different kinds of local food products. As a production manager, he oversees food production and packaging. The production department works in teams and its output is measured on a daily basis. The production department productivity has been less than ideal for quite a while under Mr. Lim’s predecessor and the senior management has now tasked Mr. Lim to look into how it can be improved.

It does not take long for Mr. Lim to notice that in the past year, while the food production teams are able to meet daily targets, the packaging team is clearly lagging behind. Mr. Lim reviewed the work schedules and realised that the packaging team works in two daily shifts and packages the food products manufactured by the production team. The first shift is often unable to cope with the volume of finished products that require packaging. As a result, the backlog is passed to the second shift, which packages even less products than the first shift so much so that the backlog continues to build up, resulting in food spoilage and waste. Mr. Lim knows that there are sufficient workers in the packaging team. In an attempt to boost the productivity of the packaging team, his predecessor even transferred some of the more efficient workers from the production teams to the packaging team but that did not improve the situation.

After observing and speaking to various supervisors, Mr. Lim learnt that the packaging team workers tend to take unusually long lunch breaks. They also like to chat with one another while packaging the goods and most of them leave work at least 15 minutes before their shift is actually over. Even the diligent workers who were transferred to the packaging team start to exhibit the same behaviour after working in the packaging team for only a few days. Mr. Lim is puzzled by the situation and he is now unsure how he can improve the productivity of the packaging team

Questions :

Question 1 (Word Limit: 1200)

Discuss a group property that likely affects the performance of the packaging team. Show how Mr. Lim can improve the performance of the team by applying one (1) factor from each of the three (3) categories of the team effectiveness model.

Question 2 (Word Limit: 800)

Mr. Lim thinks that the best way to raise productivity in the packaging team is to assign only young workers to the team, as he believes that younger workers have more energy and can work faster. He also thinks that he should place only workers with high ability in the team. He believes these arrangements should solve the problem and increase the packaging team productivity.

Do you agree with him? Explain.

How should Cortex price its software? Explain your pricing strategy.

/in /by

Existing virus-protection programs rely on virus databases that need to be updated constantly as new viruses emerge. A typical virus-protection site license costs $4,500 per year for sites of less than 500 machines. Regular updating of the databases costs around $80 in productivity loss per installed computer per year. Even with regular updating of the databases, there is a possibility that unaccounted-for viruses will infect a company’s computer systems. Virus-protection experts estimate that, with current virus-protection software, the probability that a company will experience exactly one complete system breakdown because of a virus within one year is 8%. The probability that it will experience exactly two such breakdowns within a year is 3%. The probability of more than two breakdowns is virtually zero.

A complete system breakdown, which typically lasts one day, would cost (in profits from lost sales) $40,000 to a retail company with 250 machines and $85,000 to a typical financial services company with the same number of machines.

Cortex Software Inc. is about to introduce new virus-protection software called DNX. DNX is based on a mutating-virus simulator (MRS), which, according to Cortex, will revolutionize the virus-protection landscape. The MRS essentially eliminates the need to update virus databases. The MRS is extremely powerful and, as a result, increases the probability of detecting infected files. Researchers at Cortex estimate that companies equipped with DNX have only a 2% probability of experiencing a virus-caused complete system breakdown within a year and a 0% probability of experiencing more than one such breakdown.

While the price of a DNX site license remains to be set, it is estimated that clients who adopt the software would incur startup costs (excluding the site license) of $50 per machine in installation, configuration, training, and so on.

Using a one-year horizon and assuming no other costs of virus infection or software, calculate the economic value of the DNX:

a) For a retail company with 250 machines running under existing virus-protection software.

b) For a typical financial services company with 250 machines running under existing

virus-protection software.

How should Cortex price its software? Explain your pricing strategy.

Identify, using simple heuristics, the indicators that show that the specific problems experienced by the three stores can be resolved through training.

/in /by

Training assessment is an important task for HR personnel. Use the Argosy University online library and textbooks to read about training assessments.

Then, consider the following scenario:

You have recently been appointed as a training manager for the southeast region of a major supermarket chain in the U.S. Your territory includes 15 retail stores. Your responsibility involves working directly with store managers and other stakeholders to develop training solutions to meet specific needs of employees in various stores. This includes, but is not limited to, performing needs assessments, determining appropriate instructional design and training delivery methods, as well as implementing and evaluating training initiatives.

Three of the stores in your territory have missed sales goals for the last two quarters. All three stores have received low customer satisfaction scores and are experiencing increased employee turnover rates. The high employee turnover has resulted in the store managers hiring many new and relatively inexperienced sales associates, which further contributes to the problem.

The senior management team of the supermarket chain believes that training and development may help decrease employee turnover and increase customer satisfaction. You have been asked to assess training needs and develop a proposal to address the situation in these three stores.

Instructions:

Use scholarly resources and your learning, address the following:

  1. Identify, using simple heuristics, the indicators that show that the specific problems experienced by the three stores can be resolved through training.
  2. Design a needs assessment plan and identify three specific training initiatives you would recommend for these employees. Include the expected outcomes for the three training initiatives in your proposal.
  3. Select one of the specific training initiatives you identified and develop a budget of projected costs to implement this initiative.

Write a seven-to-nine-page training proposal in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Make sure you write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

 How effective are they in business?  Is there an appropriate and inappropriate time to use.  Give an example of misuse of technology-driven communication you’ve witnessed in the workplace.

/in /by

Appropriate Technology in the Business World?

Instant messaging, texting, social media–when does it work in business?  Most people entering teh workplace today have grown up with smart phones and technology-driven communication.  It’s only natural to see business communication to begin to adopt these technology-driven communication channels.  How effective are they in business?  Is there an appropriate and inappropriate time to use.  Give an example of misuse of technology-driven communication you’ve witnessed in the workplace.  How would you manage this?  What policies would you try to implement?

CLASSMATE POST #1:

Appropriate Technology in the Business World? There is appropriate technology in the business world and it is very helpful to the business world. I work with students every day in the business world and I have to contact them on a regular basis about attendance. So, I have to use instant messaging, texting and social media to contact them. It is allowed in my profession because we have the students to sign a waiver approving it. With the smartphones always in hand, my chance to contact he/she are high. It is very effective because I am able to chat or students can contact me after hours or when I can help with a matter. It is always appropriate as long as I and the student keep it professional. If I’m contacted at an inappropriate time I would not respond until later. I just have to keep lines of communication open with our student. The policy is very simple only contact me about our business matter due to you being our student. Always keep is professional and respectful or you will be deleted or blocked.

CLASSMATE POST #2:

I have worked in the insurance industry for almost 26 years and we use an online training system called Learning Management System (LMS). An email is sent to your inbox and you are automatically registered in training class. It also sends out a reminder when you’re getting close to the deadline of completing a training course. We have audio or you can read on your own. After each session, multiple choice questions follow. This is a very helpful tool that is used at the convenience of your desk. Leaving your desk and going to a training room for an hour or so is a thing of the past.

The downfall of this feature is the abuse that some use such as logging on stating they are training when they are not. We have a certain number of training hours to attain each year and some tend to let the training run and not take the time to read the session so that person may get the same amount of training but not put forth a lot of effort.

Research and determine optimized web page layout dimensions based upon current browser usage statistics. The layout dimensions should be used on each page.

/in /by

ITEC 3280 Web Programming – Final Project

In this project, you will a dynamic, data-driven faculty/staff directory data management web app using HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL database. The application must incorporate best practices and standards for a Web-based information system.

Part I – MySQL Database (20pts)

By using phpMyAdmin in the XAMPP, a MySQL database (named ‘directorydb’) with the following tables. The last step in the Final Project is to Export your database, complete with test/sample data, so that I can use it to test your application. Don’t forget your Export at the end!

1.    Departments

The Departments table contains information about the different departments at the University.

Department ID (INT, PK, auto-incrementing, deptID)

Name (VARCHAR(50), deptName)

Phone Number (VARCHAR(20), deptPhone)

Email (VARCHAR(50), deptEmail)

Office Location (VARCHAR(100), deptOffice)

Then add some fictitious data to populate the table. Just a few records will do.

2.    Persons

The persons table contains properties of the faculty/staff member in the directory. Faculty/Staff are assigned to one department.

Person ID (INT, PK, auto-incrementing, persID)

Email Address (VARCHAR(50), persEmail)

Password (VARCHAR (50), persPassword)

First Name (VARCHAR(50), persFName)

Last Name (VARCHAR(50), persLName)

Phone Number (VARCHAR(20), persPhone)

Office Location (VARCHAR(100), persOffice)

Department (INT, persDept)

Then add some fictitious data. The persDept field in Persons table will be an integer value from sample department data you added in step one. If you use an integer value that cannot map to the Departments table you may have problems below. Add at least 5 people to your directory.

Part II – Web Development (HTML and CSS) (20 pts)

This web application will consist of four web pages. Each page will need to meet the following requirements:

1.    Research and determine optimized web page layout dimensions based upon current browser usage statistics. The layout dimensions should be used on each page.

2.    Use CSS techniques (no tables or frames) to a page layout template. This template should be used for each page.

3.    The document must conform to HTML 5 and CSS standards. Use the W3C validator! (http://validator.w3.org/) and the CSS validator (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/)

4.    Site must be tested for accessibility issues to conform to section 508 and W3C accessibility guidelines using the instructor’s specified tool.

Part III – Web Scripting (PHP and JavaScript) (60 pts)

Create the following pages based on the HTML/CSS template created in part II. Add the following PHP/JavaScript functionality:

5.    login.php

a login page that requires the user to input an email address and password. When the “Login” button is clicked, the input is validated against the values stored in the “persons” table. If the email and password is incorrect, error messages are displayed on the page. If the email and password are correct, the user is redirected to dashboard.php. In addition, the login page contains a ‘register’ link so that a new user can register. If the register link is clicked, the user is redirected to register.php.

6.    dashboard.php

a dashboard.php page that generates 2 lists of the following information using appropriate HTML controls; the report should show all the fields in the database for each entity.

1.    Listing of all the Departments w/ an Edit button/link for each that, when clicked, goes to department.php. Pass the deptID value via querystring for which was clicked for later use.

2.    Listing of all the People in the Directory with their respective department names in plain-text. An SQL INNER JOIN keyword will help you draw the relationship through persDept and deptID.

https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_join_inner.asp

7.    register.php

a new faculty/staff register page that contains appropriate HTML form controls to allow the user to input the following user data. Each input should have an associated <label> tag.

Email Address – textbox

Password – textbox with type=”password”

First Name – textbox

Last Name – textbox

Phone Number – textbox

Office Location -textbox

Department – dropdown list (<select>). The value of the <option> tag should be the deptID and the user should see the plain-text from deptName. These should be generated via the database and not hard-coded in.

Submit Button

When the submit button is clicked, a javascript function is called to validate the user input. The javascript validation routine should ensure that all fields are required/input, password is at least 8 characters in length, and email should contain the ‘@’ and at least one dot (‘.’). (You may use the following simple email regular expression,

What sort of compensation and benefits package would you ensure is in place to recruit the best candidates for the position? 

/in /by

Herzberg’s two-factor theory speaks to issues relevant in both employee compensation and benefits as it discusses why people choose a workplace, as well as what keeps employees satisfied and committed to their work.  For more information on Herzberg’s two-factor theory, see the Frederick Herzberg motivational theory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Imagine that you are an HR manager in a contemporary firm and answer the following:

  • Who are you trying to recruit to work for you (i.e., your audience)?
  • What sort of compensation and benefits package would you ensure is in place to recruit the best candidates for the position?Your initial post should include at least one scholarly source and one popular source to support your response.

    Frederick Herzberg motivational theory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/herzberg.htm

    Lipman, V. (2013, September). Surprising, disturbing facts from the mother of all employee engagement surveys (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/23/surprising-disturbing-facts-from-the-mother-of-all-employee-engagement-surveys/

    Multimedia

    Swank, A. (2004, July 31). Table of Information (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/AAYW2ggLIXk

    Recommended Resources

    Article

    Connors, G. (2013, February). Employers: Your HR managers should be ‘expert’ at being a fact witness (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/theemploymentbeat/2013/02/27/employers-your-hr-manager-should-be-expert-at-being-a-fact-witness/

    Davidson, L. (2013, August). 11 misunderstood employee benefits and how to make the most of them (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2013/08/15/what-you-dont-understand-about-your-benefits-could-hurt-you/

    Parrish, S. (2013, June). Who says your compensation is ‘reasonable?’ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveparrish/2013/06/11/who-says-your-compensation-is-reasonable/

    Websites

    Gallup. (2014). Report: State of the American workplace (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/services/176708/state-american-workplace.aspx

Explain in a two-page essay the process and steps your company will have to take to defend this action.

/in /by

Instructions

Assume that an unfair labor practice charge was filed against your company by several employees and three prospective employees. See the form linked below indicating the charge, which outlines the scenario below:

FORM NLRB-501: Case 4689-3

On July 29, 2016, Delphi Golf, Inc. and the union entered a collective bargaining agreement. The majority of the company’s employees covered by the agreement had not designated the union as their collective-bargaining representative. The agreement contains a union-security clause requiring employees who are members in good standing of the union to maintain their membership in good standing and all other employees to become members of the union on or before the 31st day following the effective date of the agreement or the date of their hire. The union instructed Delphi Golf, Inc. not to employ three servers for restaurant positions in the company because the servers were not members of the union. The company is an employer within the meaning of Section 2(2) of the act engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the act.

Explain in a two-page essay the process and steps your company will have to take to defend this action. Explain the defenses to the action and if the union employees have valid claims. What actions by the employer should have been done differently, if at all? What actions by the union should have been done differently? Who, if anyone, is liable?

You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying APA style citations.