Describe problematic issues associated with emotions during virtual team interaction. Within your description involve:

1) the concepts related to perceiving negative emotions: neutrality and negativity bias, how one recognizes negative emotions by what isn’t said.

2) the phenomenon of mirroring emotions when engaged in a virtual dialogue.

Considering the experience gained from all their current parks as well as the external forces including increasing competition, market regulations, diversity of potential new markets, and technology integration, what criteria should KidZania’s management follow in selecting specific activities for its future “cities” to enhance experiential learning while remaining profitable?

What is your understanding of how your voice and style are different in emails from the way you handle audience in memoranda?

CASE ANALYSIS

Mars Inc.: merger of the European food, pet care and confectionery divisions

Mars Inc. is a diversified multifunctional company whose primary products include foods, petcare, confectionery, electronics and drinks. Owned and controlled by the Mars family, this US giant is one of the world’s biggest private companies, but also one of the most secretive. Mars’ decision in January 2000 to merge its food, pet care and confectionery divisions across Europe – and eventually with headquarters in the UK – has split the marketing industry. The most well-known brands within the three divisions are:

• Foods: Uncle Ben’s rice and sauces;
• Pet care: Whiskas, Pedigree;
• Confectionery: M&Ms, Snickers, Milky Way, Mars Bar.

Mars UK says the decision to pool the businesses was taken to strike at the company’s international competitors in food and confectionery, such as Nestlé and Unilever. The move also coincides with plans to create a single European market and highlights the company’s belief that its consumers’ needs are the same across the continent. However, the combination of food and confectionery with pet care is not clear to all industry observers. One industry analyst made the comment: Generally speaking, Mars is doing the right thing by merging divisions to squeeze profits out of them. Before the advent of the euro it was acceptable to run separate companies in different European countries but not anymore. Another analyst said: ‘I can’t imagine it marketing all three sides of the business together. They’re too different.’ The only visible benefit appears to be an improvement in distribution. Tastes across European markets are very different, whether you’re selling products for animals or people It’s all very well Mars saying it will tackle competitors such as Nestlé and Unilever, but they are only rivals in food and confectionery. If Mars starts laying down too many controls by merging all its businesses – and therefore also its marketing and management strategies – it may streamline communications, but could lose the creativity available in different regions.

Questions:

1. Discuss the two views of organizing Mars’ European activities.

2. Did Mars Inc. do the right thing in your opinion?

What was the political and moral significance of the Berlin Wall?

Create a two-page mini pragmatic change plan: imagine you have to introduce a new dress code in your team e.g.(white shirt policy). People so far have had no expectations set as per their dressing, some feel awkward and surprised. You are in charge as a leader to introduce and implement this change. For example:

• How can you encourage your team to go through the change?
• How can you make change fearless, how can you create clarity, how can you encourage buy-in?
• How will you mitigate risks and reduce resistance?
• How do you work along the change curve, as a leader?

LP5.1 Assignment: Aging Parents These assignments will assess the competency 5. Analyze reimbursement and quality improvement in long-term care systems. Prepare a 3-4 page, double-spaced paper (cite 3-4 reliable sources) that addresses the following scenario: You are helping your parents, ages 62 and 64, plan their retirement and financial future. • Research and discuss options for seniors' long-term care, including programs through Medicare, Medicaid, managed care, and other private insurance, etc. • What will you tell them about the potential need for, and costs of, long-term care? What about long-term care insurance? • How will you advise them to prepare financially to cover their health needs and related issues as they age, based on their income, current payer coverage and current and future needs? Be specific. • Detail trends affecting long-term care reimbursement and national spending from federal, state, and personal perspectives. Submit this assignment to your instructor via the dropbox “LP5.1 Assignment: Aging Parents.” This assignment is worth 60 points and will be graded according to the scoring guide below.

1. What are the risk management decisions in technological era in big organizations? (answer must be 250 words or more)

our company was awarded a tender to collect and return a construction team of 15 workers from King Shaka airport (Durban) to Lesotho and back to King Shaka airport (Durban). The GPS location in Lesotho is -29.362339, 28.503741 near the Katse Dam wall. You will be able to cut, copy and paste the location into google which will take you to the location. The construction will have a duration of 2 weeks.

1.2 Scope Planning (30) marks  * Define the scope for the project.  * Determine the human resources needed for the project.  * Assign responsibility.

1.3 Schedule Planning (30) marks - Design a basic activity sequence which include a network diagram. - Develop a Gantt chart.

1.4 Closing Phase (10) marks  Closing Phase. - Close the project with a final one page document with the final close off and acceptance signature.

Social Media, Online Expression, and Collaboration (LO 8.1, LO 8.2, LO 8.4)

Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, recently commented about the use of new communication channels. He specifically mentioned the use of social networking and the growing importance of Web 2.0 tools:

As my kids became teenagers, I started looking at Facebook a little more closely. It was a significant amount of collaboration. There was open understanding. They didn’t have a problem sharing their status. Nothing seemed to be secret, and they were living their lives very openly, and friends were commenting on each other and it was working. Here is my generation, which is very security-conscious and privacy-conscious, and I thought, what are the differences? This is the generation coming to work for us. It’s not my generation. So we started having people make their presentations and record them for our internal website. We open that for review to a 360-degree workshop, which means your subordinates will review it. Your managers will read it. Your peers will read it, and everybody will comment on it. I will be, or your manager will be, one of the many who read it. So, every presentation was reviewed by 300, 400 people. What happened? There were two very interesting lessons that I learned. One, because your subordinates are going to see the plan, you cannot lie. You have to be honest. Two, because your peers are going to see it, you are going to put your best work into it. Third, you didn’t learn from me. You learned by reviewing somebody else’s presentation. You learned from the comments somebody else gave you. For the 8,000 people who participated, there was a massive collaborative learning that took place.31

Based on Nayar’s comments and your own experiences, answer the following questions:

1. What are the potential personal and group benefits from using Web 2.0 communication channels?

2. What are some of the differing attitudes between generations about online expression? What impact might these differences have on workplace communication?

3. In what ways do online communications lead to more honesty and higher-quality work?

4. In what ways might online communications lead to less honesty and lower-quality work?

Conflicts on Investigation Teams

1. How might you go about analyzing the team's leadership structure to determine how these personalities affect the team's overall performance?

2. What evaluation and reward system for performance would you put in place for individual team members including leadership?

Why is it necessary to manage unsafe acts in addition to unsafe conditions at the workplace? Why do you think employees might act unsafely although they know that their acts may cause accidents?

What features of the American political system promote fragmentation, lack of coordination, and inconsistencies in the policy-making process? In your view, how could this incremental system of policy making be changed?