A farmer has been in the habit of always planting potatoes on his farm. In previous years, the seeds for the potatoes were planted in the spring, and were ready to harvest in mid-July. After that, a second planting took place in late July, which was ready to harvest in early October.

This year, however, there is concern that a blight might destroy some or all of the potato crop. One thing he could do would be to plant a different crop such as peas which would not be affected by the blight. The peas would have only a single planting at a cost of $40,000. This planting would yield a crop in October worth $70,000 if the weather turns out to be good, or $30,000 if the weather turns out to be poor. There is a 60% chance that the weather will be good.

If, however, he decides to plant potatoes, he will have to worry about the blight (but the weather has little effect on the potato crop and can be ignored). The potato crop would cost $60,000 to plant. There is a 10% chance of a severe blight, which would destroy the crop, and render any attempt at a second planting in late July not worth doing. A mild blight (20% chance) would partially destroy the crop, making it worth only $35,000, while having no blight (70% chance) would produce a crop worth $80,000. After either a mild blight or no blight, a second planting could be undertaken, with the same costs and revenues as the first. The probability of a severe, mild, or no blight would be 15%, 30%, and 55% if the first planting had a mild blight, but would be 0%, 5%, and 95% if the first planting had no blight.

NOTE: The crop planted in the Spring will be either peas or potatoes; doing a bit of both is not an option in this problem.

Draw the tree, solve it using the rollback procedure, and state the recommen- dation and the ranking payoff. When drawing the tree, use payoff nodes for inter- mediate payoffs.

Please show all workings and show where the numbers come from.

Write an essay that focuses on ethical considerations of a particular study.

Jerry Smith is thinking about opening a bicycle shop in his hometown. Jerry loves to take his own bike on 50-mile trips with his friends, but he believes that any small business should be started only if there is a good chance of making a profit. Jerry can open a small shop, a large shop, or no shop at all. The profits will depend on the size of the shop and whether the market is favorable or unfavorable for his products. Because there will be a 5-year lease on the building that Jerry is thinking about using, he wants to make sure that he makes the correct decision. Jerry is also thinking about hiring his old marketing professor to conduct a marketing research study. If the study is conducted, the study could be favorable (i.e., predicting a favorable market) or unfavorable (i.e., predicting an unfavorable market).

If Jerry builds the large bicycle shop, he will earn $60,000 if the market is favorable, but he will lose $40,000 if the market is unfavorable. The small shop will return a $30,000 profit in a favorable market and a $1 0,000 loss in an unfavorable market. At the present time, he believes that there is a 50–50 chance that the market will be favorable. His old marketing professor will charge him $5,000 for the marketing research. It is estimated that there is a 0.6 probability that the survey will be favorable. Furthermore, there is a 0.9 probability that the market will be favorable given a favorable outcome from the study. However, the marketing professor has warned Jerry that there is only a probability of 0.12 of a favorable market if the marketing research results are not favorable. Jerry is confused.

(a) What should Jerry do?

(b) What would the expected profit be?

Explain the challenges of managing expatriates and propose effective ways of managing expatriates through specific HR practices. Be sure to include at least TWO different HR practices.

Choose and explain one of the debt financing methods mentioned in the textbook. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the method that you've chosen, and in what situations does it work best? Give an example of a company that uses this strategy. Be sure to support your ideas and arguments with evidence and details.

.1 Individuals’ Predisposition toward Change How people react to change depends a lot on how they learned to handle change and ambiguity as children. One person’s parents may have been patient, flexible, and understanding, and from the time the child was weaned she may have learned there were positive compensations for the loss of immediate gratification. Thus, she will associate making changes with love and approval. Another person’s parents may have been unreasonable and unyielding, forcing him to do things (piano lessons, for example) that he didn’t want to do. Thus, he will be distrustful of making changes because he will associate them with demands for compliance.134

2. Surprise and Fear of the Unknown When radically different changes are introduced without warning—for example, without any official announcements—the office rumor mill will go into high gear, and affected employees will become fearful of the implications of the changes. It is essential for change leaders to explain the rationale for change, to educate people about the personal implications of change, and to garner commitment to change.135

3. Climate of Mistrust Trust involves reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behavior. Mistrust encourages secrecy, which causes deeper mistrust, putting even well-conceived changes at risk of failure. Managers who trust their employees make the change process an open, honest, and participative affair. All told, employees who feel fairly treated by managers during change are less likely to resist.136

4. Fear of Failure Intimidating changes on the job can cause employees to doubt their capabilities. Self-doubt erodes self-confidence and cripples personal growth and development.

5. Loss of Status or Job Security Administrative and technological changes that threaten to alter power bases or eliminate jobs—as often happens during corporate restructurings that threaten middle-management jobs—generally trigger strong resistance.

6. Peer Pressure Even people who are not themselves directly affected by impending changes may actively resist in order to protect the interests of their friends and coworkers.

7. Disruption of Cultural Traditions or Group Relationships Whenever individuals are transferred, promoted, or reassigned, it can disrupt existing cultural and group relationships. Example: Traditionally, Sony Corp. promoted insiders to new positions. When an outsider, Howard Stringer, was named as the next chairman and CEO and six corporate officers were asked to resign, creating a majority board of foreigners, the former CEO, Nobuyuki Idei, worried the moves might engender strong employee resistance.137

8. Personality Conflicts Just as a friend can get away with telling us something we would resent hearing from an adversary, the personalities of change agents can breed resistance.

9. Lack of Tact or Poor Timing Introducing changes in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time can create employee resistance. Employees are more apt to accept changes when managers effectively explain their value, as, for example, in demonstrating their strategic purpose to the organization.

10. Nonreinforcing Reward Systems Employees are likely to resist when they can’t see any positive rewards from proposed changes, as, for example, when one is asked to work longer hours without additional compensation. Where do you stand on change? Do you tend to accept and embrace change, or do you have tendencies to resist it? The following self-assessment will provide feedback on your attitudes toward change. If your scores indicate resistance, you should consider what can be done to move your attitudes in a more positive direction. ● Then create an initial posting addressing two of the ten reasons on the list. Give examples of times when you have seen these two reasons in action, and tell about the resulting outcome. What would you suggest to make things work out for the better?

• Give examples of times when you have seen these two reasons in action, and tell about the resulting outcome?
• What would you suggest to make things work out for the better?

Aggregate planning is greatly concerned with matching anticipated demand with capacity. If the two deviate, in other words, if anticipated demand differs from capacity, management may implement an approach to either alter demand, alter capacity, or a combination of both.

Describe the options focused on altering demand. Then, describe options focused on altering supply.

The following is a list of target audience examples. Your task is to identify what the bases for segmentation is in each example. Is the segmentation effort Geographic, Behavioral, Demographic, or Psychographic? There could be more than one correct answer. List the letter(s) for each situation below:

A = Geographic

B = Behavioral

C = Demographic

D = Psychographic

1. A bank that markets home loans to young married people and financial planning services to retired people
2. A mobile phone company that targets people who frequently vacation in remote parts of the world
3. A gourmet cheese company that targets people buying cheese platters for a dinner party or function
4. Computer software firm that is most interested in households with a high level of software purchases
5. Prestige car manufacturers who highlight the status associated with owning one of their vehicles
6. Smart phone manufacturers targeting those consumers who are interested in purchasing their first smart phone in the future
7. A plumber deciding to do letterbox drops his local area
8. A book publisher that specializes in children’s books
9. A home-delivered spring water company advertising in a ‘health’ magazine
10. A travel package tour operator targeting retired people who want educational travel experiences

Organizational culture can have both functional and dysfunctional effects on the people and the organization itself. Identify and explain at least two situations under which culture acts as a liability to an organization.

Topic 7

Book: Operations and Supply Chain Management Jacobs & Chase 14e

14. Merrimac Manufacturing has always purchased a certain component part from a supplier on the East Coast for $40 per part. The supplier is reliable and has maintained the same price structure for years. Recent improvements in operations and reduced product demand have cleared up some capacity in Merrimac’s own plant for producing component parts. The particular part in question can be produced internally by Merrimac at $25 per part, with an annual fixed investment of $30,000.

a) Over what range (quantity) of product would each of the two options be the preferred one?

b) As an alternative, a new supplier located nearby is offering to produce parts on the following cost schedule. For the first 100 parts, the cost is $52 per part. For each part in excess of 100, the cost per unit drops to $35 per part. Considering just the two suppliers, over what range (quantity) of product would each supplier be the preferred one?

Examples of General Strategies of Manufacturing in Brazil.

Needs at least 4 examples

Book: Operations and Supply Chain Management Jacobs & Chase 14e

19. Describe the Six Sigma Philosophy, DPMO, and DMAIC and explain the main difference between it and Lean Philosophy. (300 words approximately)

In an OB context what is meant by "employee diversity"? Why is a good understanding important to an organization?