Think about different types of software, programs and applications. Think about the following scenario then answer the question below:

You are the director of information technology at a company that frequently hires student interns. The interns tend to have limited experience with using file, disk, and system management tools. As part of your job, you lead workshops that teach the interns the many tasks and functions they can perform using these tools.

Choose three categories of tools, such as disk cleanup, PC maintenance, file compression, cloud storage and backup. Use the web to research popular tools or apps for each category, if they are available as part of an operating system, and the costs for each. Choose one program from each category, and read user reviews and articles by industry experts. Describe situations where you would use each type of tool. Share any experiences you have with using the tools.

According to Porter’s Five Forces Model of competition, it characterizes industries driven by power relationships representing the means of competition. In this challenge, you are to identify examples of companies using different forms of power as their basis for competing. Each example should demonstrate a different form of power. Also, explain the source of power and how the company is using it to their advantage. The more examples the better.

Discuss franchising as an alternative for entrepreneurs in South Africa. Do so from the perspective of the franchisor and the franchisee. 30 MARKS

Why is a multidisciplinary approach beneficial when organizations use e-commerce? Also, what types of external factors can influence an organization’s ecommerce operations. Please provide the URL and industry with your insights.

In this challenge, you’ll be using your critical and creative dimensions of 4-DS thinking. In this exercise use the Strategic Canvas and Four Actions Framework to see if you can identify a Blue Ocean within or outside an existing Red Ocean. First, provide your Strategy Canvas and in detail explain the significance of the factors in your Strategy Canvas. Then, proceed to use the Four Action Framework to identify a potential Blue Ocean. What does your Blue Ocean look like? Is it competitive free?

Find an industry that is noted for consumer dissatisfaction. Using the concept of satisfaction, identify consumer expectations that aren’t being met along with describing their current experiences in this industry and how their experiences don’t meet their expectations. [Here, you want to first discuss the expectations and then, describe the actual experiences as a separate narrative.] Then, based upon what you have just characterized, how could you configure a business that would operate differently? Would it involve different expectations? If this is the case, how would your marketing be used in changing expectations? How would you change the consumer experience to be different based upon changing their expectations, etc.? How would you create a strategy involving a changing consumer?

Hint: Formally define the concept of satisfaction first by explaining the Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Satisfaction and also, provide its graphic depiction.

Review and discussion question Number 4 page 21 on Supervision: Concepts and Skill Building Edition 10 .....Chapter 1

What are some advantages of greater diversity?

Assuming that I'm working in Logistics & supply chain managements.

2 recources needed

We have all worked on projects whether formally (implementation of new software) or informally (planning a school program). Consider your experience on a project and what contributed to its success or failure. Perhaps it is the project’s completion on time, in scope, within budget limits, stakeholder satisfaction, increase in market share, quality improvement, or other business measures of success or failure.

Conduct research beyond your course materials and develop a position on what constitutes project success, and how measures of success might change for projects in for-profit, non-profit, government organizations, and for projects in international environments.

Reflection Question#1 – What is Christina Aguilera and the other musicians asking the U.S. government to do and explain why?

Reflection Question #2 – Describe your opinion on this issue and mention if you agree or disagree with the musicians as to what they are asking?

Reflection Question #3 – Give your opinion on --- “Whose job is it to police copyright infringement?”

“The music industry is begging the US government to change its copyright laws” By Jamieson Cox on April 1, 2016
Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, deadmau5, and dozens of other musicians are asking the US government to revamp the Digital Millennium Copyright act (DMCA), the piece of law that governs access to copyrighted work on the internet. Musicians, managers, and "creators" from across the industry co-signed petitions sent to the US Copyright Office arguing that tech companies — think YouTube and Tumblr, sites with vast reserves of content that infringes on some copyright — have "grown and generated huge profits" on the backs of material that's illegally hosted.

"The growth and support of technology companies should not be at the expense of artists and songwriters," reads the letter signed by Aguilera, Perry, and their peers. "The tech companies who benefit from the DMCA today were not the intended protectorate when it was signed into law two decades ago."

Whose job is it to police copyright infringement?
This is a complicated issue, but you can boil it down to one key question: whose job is it to police the appearance of copyrighted material where it doesn't belong? When the DMCA was created in 1998, it was much easier for artists and labels to handle isolated incidents of copyright infringement using the act's "notice-and-takedown" system. (It's self-explanatory: the copyright owner files a notice of infringement, it's processed, and the offending post is taken down.)
It's a lot harder to police the internet c. 2016. It's flooded with new, potentially infringing material every second, and the industry the notice-and-takedown system isn't responsive enough to help musicians' work retain its value. It's also noting that sites like YouTube have thrived on the "copyright black market," earning millions of clicks and views from content sitting in the grey area between posting and takedown. The sites counter by arguing they've given the labels the tools they need (like YouTube's Content ID system) to make DMCA takedowns faster and more effective.
It's unclear exactly what impact the industry's coordinated response will have on the status of the DMCA. Bloomberg notes that the US Copyright Office doesn't have the power to directly change the DMCA; it can recommend a set of changes to a subcommittee tasked with reviewing contemporary copyright law, but that's about it. If you take the industry's word for it, that change needs to happen fast, because the status quo is endangering the future of music. "The existing laws — and their interpretation by judges — threaten the continued viability of songwriters and recording artists to survive from the creation of music," reads the musicians' letter. "The next generation of creators may be silenced if the economics don't justify a career in the music industry."

B. TERMS
_____9. reasonable accommodation
_____10.constructive discharge
_____11.quid pro quo harassment
_____12.lockout
_____13.closed shop
_____14.strike
_____15.whistleblowing
_____16.employment-at-will doctrine

A. Either party may terminate the employment relationship at any time and for any reason.
B. This is when the employer causes the employee’s working conditions to be so intolerable that a reasonable person would feel compelled to quit.
C. Occurs when an employee tells government authorities that his employer is engaged in some specific unsafe or illegal activity.
D. This refers to a minor change or adaptation that an employer must make for a disabled employee.
E. This is the illegal demand for sexual favors in return for job opportunities.
F. This is when the employer shuts the workplace down to prevent employees from working.
G. This is when the workers leave their jobs and refuse to work as part of the collective bargaining process.
H. When union membership is required as a condition for employment.

Do you think that the US should retaliate against the Chinese manipulation of its currency by manipulating the US dollar?

Do you believe that drug testing of employees is necessary? Why and why not? Also, include at least 1 pro and 1 con of drug testing and name the occasions drug testing may be used. In addition,  explain how much privacy can employees expect at work. Also, please name different types of labor unions you may have heard of and explain the relationship between labor relations and labor unions. Describe whether or not labor unions have a positive or negative effect on different industries

Include in-text citations and Works Cited (References)

V. LAW IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS (Select from the choices below)
A. RELEVANT TERMS
_____46.drawer
_____47.shelter principle
_____48.HDC
_____49.mere holder
_____50.blank indorsement
_____51.qualified indorsement
_____52.fraud in the execution
_____53.fraud in the inducement
_____54.drawee
_____55.payee
_____56.cashier’s check
_____57.certified check
_____58.garnishment
_____59.discharge
_____60.mechanic’s lien
_____61.registration statement
_____62.financing statement
_____63.blue sky laws
_____64.Trustee in Bankruptcy
_____65.SEC
_____66.proxy
_____67.order instrument
_____68.bearer instrument
_____69.Article 9
_____70.Article 3

A. A creditor files this on a debtor’s real property for failure to pay for improvements on the real property.
B. A person who takes a negotiable instrument for value, in good faith, and without any notice of defect.
C. The party that initiates a draft.
D. Name for a check that the bank draws on itself.
E. An order permitting a creditor to collect a debt by seizing a portion of the debtor’s wages.
F. Document that needs to be filed in order to become a perfected creditor.
G. This is the purpose of a bankruptcy proceeding which would remove/forgive a person’s debt.
H. The party that is ordered to pay a draft or check.
I. Anyone in possession of a negotiable instrument and is not a HDC.
J. A check that has been accepted in writing by the bank on which it is drawn.
K. When a person who does not qualify as an HDC but who derives his or her title through an HDC acquires the rights and privileges of an HDC.
L. Uniform Commercial Code that deals with negotiable instruments.
M. Name for state security laws.
N. A person issues a negotiable instrument based on a false statement by the other party.
O. Document that must be filed with the SEC before a security is issued.
P. An indorsement that has a signature and the words “without recourse”.
Q. Uniform Commercial Code that deals with secured transactions.
R. The person being paid funds on a negotiable instrument is referred to as this.
S. An indorsement of a negotiable instrument that has a mere signature.
T. A negotiable instrument that is payable to an identified person or order.
U. Statement that gives someone the right to vote your stock.
V. When a person is deceived in signing a negotiable instrument thinking that he is signing something else.
W. Federal Agency that regulates the securities markets.
X. A negotiable instrument that is not payable to a specific person but payable to bearer or cash.
Y. Government official who performs and administers task in a bankruptcy procedure.
========================================================
V. LAW IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS (Select from the choices below)
B. THE LAW
_____71.Chapter 7
_____72.Chapter 13
_____73.Chapter 11
_____74.Rule 10B-5
_____75..Sarbanes Oxley Act

A. Bankruptcy code that allows for partial repayment of debt.
B. Federal law that mandates all financial statements of public corporations be certified by their CEOs and CFOs.
C. Federal regulation that seeks to prevent insider trading.
D. Bankruptcy code that allows for complete discharge of debt.
E. Bankruptcy code that allows for a reorganization of a business.

Case F: Controlling Performance Management Jacob Victory

1. What is your interpretation of what happened in this case? Assume for the moment that Josh was successful at improving performance and that this was why he was being transferred.

The New Vice President
“He is not a nurse,” smirked the pediatric nurse director. “He’s going to be a piece of cake,” mocked the other with mischief
gleaming in her eye. They were referring to Josh Webber, their new boss who was starting
that morning as the new vice president of the pediatric division. Josh was not new to the organization. He was a young and eager executive and had paid his dues working for five years as the right hand of the Visiting Nurse Service of America’s (VNSA) president and CEO. Thereafter, he was promoted to operations director of the organization’s highly profitable rehabilitation ser- vices division and then promoted to director of performance management, where he worked for more than a year with the pediatric division’s administra- tor and her team to improve the division’s business and clinical performance.
Josh, holding a box of files and walking confidently with his polished shoes tip-tapping on the tiles outside of his new administrative suite’s en- trance, had heard the exchange between the nurse directors. The comment struck Josh as odd because the two directors had worked closely with him over the last year and recent improvements in the division’s operational per- formance had been highly praised by VNSA leadership.
“Time to don your game face, Josh!” he thought to himself. Sighing gently, Josh put on a toothy grin, turned the corner and greeted the two di- rectors enthusiastically as he entered the suite. The nurse directors didn’t miss a beat and greeted Josh with a warm, “Welcome aboard, Josh!”
The Maternal and Pediatric Service Line
The maternal and pediatric service line was only one part of the VNSA, the nation’s largest for-profit home health agency.
Under the current CEO’s tenure, the VNSA had become a national home care agency. It employed 30,000 nurses, rehabilitation therapists, social workers, and home health aides, and served almost 500,000 patients in six states annually. The agency earned a healthy margin on its annual $5 bil- lion revenue base and, with a conservative management team at its helm, the VNSA was only geared to become bigger and more influential in enforcing federal long-term healthcare policy. Its many divisions and programs focused primarily on the home-bound frail elderly, especially those in the long-term care population who made up the Medicare, Medicaid, and dually eligible marketplace. At an annual growth rate of 8 to 10 percent, the VNSA was a force in the market, offering short-term, skilled nursing and professional services via its adult, pediatric, community mental health, long-term care, rehabilitation therapy, and palliative and hospice programs. It also operated a lucrative managed care company that offered myriad managed care plans to a large market base of elderly and long-term care patients; more than 200,000 members were covered under these plans.
Yet, while the organization’s primary focus was on long-term care and the geriatric population, the agency’s roots had been laid by its maternal and pediatric division, VNSA’s first program, which had been founded more than 170 years ago. Now composed of ten pediatric programs, the division annually served more than 35,000 mothers, newborns, and children via numerous programs that focused on short-term skilled care, pediatric care management, and evidence-based preventive services and family-focused programs. Deemed the largest organization of its kind in the nation, VNSA’s stated mission was to serve the most vulnerable populations, especially those who lacked access to healthcare. Almost 90 percent of the patients served lived below the poverty line and were insured by Medicaid or enrolled in Medicaid managed care plans. Most of these patients had complex illnesses and, more often than not, came from socioeconomically compromised environments. A typical patient profile included a 15-year-old mother with C-section wound care complications; a two-month-old boy with a brain tumor who recently had his left arm amputated; a 14-year-old girl with the mental capacity of a 3-year-old experiencing severe cardiac and respiratory complications and multiple rehospitalizations—and the list continued on for thousands of similar patients. VNSA’s charitable care and community benefit programs were a hallmark of its mission, and the maternal and pediatric service line was at the mission’s core.
With annual revenues of $50 million, the pediatric division was histori- cally under-reimbursed and had a loss of $18 million every year. Seven of its ten programs were grant-funded, and two were funded by VNSA’s board of directors’ Charitable Care Benefit Fund. The program that relied on tradi- tional insurance mechanisms for reimbursement was responsible for nearly all of the division’s deficit.
Despite the annual losses, the VNSA board of directors considered this division untouchable. A subset of VNSA board members and community pediatricians also composed the pediatric division’s advisory board, and these individuals and the division’s chair—a full board member and an influential member of society—were key fixtures with respect to their commitment, sup- port, and advocacy for the maternal and pediatric services the division pro- vided to the communities it served. From a branding perspective, VNSA’s executive management shared in the board’s view and actively used the ma- ternal and pediatric division in the agency’s public relations efforts to market the company as one that focused on community benefit, despite its for-profit status. Moreover, the division was the lead recipient of VNSA’s philanthropic endeavors. Millions of dollars were raised for the program, but not enough to reduce the deficit. Yet because VNSA was a highly disciplined agency in which most of its business leaders annually exceeded their business and clini- cal targets, the pediatric division stuck out like a sore thumb. In internal man- agement meetings, executive leadership notably demanded that the division’s management minimize its financial deficit and had directed a harsh eye and even harsher commentary toward the division because it had not historically met its budgeted business targets. Its clinical outcomes were average at best, although its customer satisfaction ratings were consistently among the high- est of all programs in the agency.
Not surprisingly, the administrators of the pediatric division turned over frequently. In the last six years, there had been four vice presidents be- cause the burnout rate was high. Other issues stemmed from a lack of insti- tutional support in providing the division with adequate business oversight. The program directors in the division were either nurses or social workers who had been promoted up the ladder; these directors maintained the per- spective of frontline clinicians, and focused primarily on ensuring that the sick children were served. Being labeled a “community benefit” program (a euphemism for “a program that makes no money”) and watching their se- nior leaders leave because they were “routinely beat up on at meetings,” as one nurse director put it, made the program’s leaders wary of every new vice president who was brought in to lead the division. “How long will this one last?” was a frequent question.
Josh was wondering the same thing.
Who Is on Deck?
Six pairs of eyes stared at Josh. All six of his direct reports sat in front of him, one next to another. “Welcome to Josh’s Leadership Assimilation,” said the regional head of VNSA’s organizational development (OD) human resources division. “In the next three hours you will learn about Josh, his management style, his goals, and his objectives for the next year,” he continued. Standing in front of the room, Josh stared back and, being a visual person, thought that he was “looking at the living and breathing version of the division’s organization chart.”
The next three hours were eye-opening. The OD representative had asked the group to describe Josh. Words such as young, a man, articulate, competitive, takes-no-prisoner type, poised, ambitious, seemingly courteous, soft-spoken, deep thinker, all-business were only some of the terms used. Then the group was asked what they wanted to know from Josh. Most wanted to know
•   how “hands-on” he planned to be in managing their divisions,

•   how available he wanted them to be when he needed them,

•   how he was going to manage a group of clinicians when he had no
clinical training, and

•   how and why he obtained his current promotion.
Only two in the group genuinely wanted to know how he was going to help them perform better, while the other four scoffed. Lorann Stutters, a director who ran two disease-based programs for adolescents, blatantly asked, “We know you’ve been brought here to ‘fix’ this division; how long do you plan to spend here before you position yourself for your next job?”
Did she really just say that? Josh thought to himself. He endured three hours of people venting about the history of the program; of questions about his intentions for the business; of sly glances that questioned his every answer; and of probing questions that had more venom than substance. Only two of the directors remained mostly quiet and asked thoughtful questions about the strategic positioning of the division.
After the meeting, Lucas Red, the OD representative leading the meet- ing, gave Josh a piece of paper that listed the five key impressions the directors had of Josh; this information had been collected prior to the meeting.
1. Josh is a male under 35 years of age, but he looks like he just turned 20. 2. Josh is too ambitious. 3. Josh knows how to present a complex idea in a simple, succinct way. He
is a good public speaker. 4. Josh is the “golden boy,” having served as the CEO’s special assistant. It
is obvious how he got this promotion. 5. Josh is a nonclinician; how can he possibly understand patient care issues?
“This is going to be a fun ride, Josh,” he said to himself, trying to nurse his bruised ego. Josh walked back to his office, sat down, and started to draw an organizational chart.