QUE. Explain the following statement: It goes without saying then, that the human organism (body) and even more, the self cannot be adequately understood apart from the particular social context in which they were shaped.

As Sir Francis Drake is reputed to have said: I have brought you to the storehouse of the world; blame yourself if you go away empty handed.

(The answer needs to be in soft copy only)

You have just signed on as the Manager of Human Resources for a large manufacturing company in the Chicago area. Your company manufactures parts to the automotive industry such as air duct assemblies for various models of new vehicles as well as to the secondary market for these same parts. Upon conducting an audit of HR initiatives and trying to understand the challenges you want to tackle, you find that the overall turnover rate for this company is 37%. You have not worked in this specific industry but you feel at first glance that this number is high. Based on this limited information that you have, lay out a strategy for addressing turnover. You should include the following in your answer:

1. Is the 37% turnover a cause for concern? How would you go about finding out this information?

2. What additional data will you gather to learn more about the turnover in this organization? Remember that your readings discuss different types of turnover and this should be addressed in your answer along with any benefits of turnover.

3. Assume that you find that the turnover is problematic. Particularly, you discover that the turnover for non-exempt staff is 42% - well over the total turnover for the organization. Prepare a strategy to suggest to the CEO for addressing this turnover, specifically addressing possible causes of the turnover and solutions related to those causes. You will need to think about many of the concepts we have discussed throughout this course in order to answer this question fully.

• Prompt: Review and respond to the three questions presented in the “The ‘People’ Focus: Human Resources at Alaska Airlines” case at the end of Chapter 10.
• Requirements: A 250-word minimum, APA compliant paper addressing all three questions. Regarding Question 2 – is there a biblical basis for employee empowerment? The final section is to include an analysis of how you see the approaches stated either aligning with or going counter to Scripture. How do Genesis 1:26-27 and 1 Peter 5:2-3 apply to this case?

The “People” Focus: Human Resources at Alaska Airlines

With thousands of employees spread across nearly 100 locations in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, building a committed and cohesive workforce is a challenge. Yet Alaska Airlines is making it work. The company’s “people” focus states:

While airplanes and technology enable us to do what we do, we recognize this is fundamentally a people business, and our future depends on how we work together to win in this extremely competitive environment. As we grow, we want to strengthen our small company feel . . . We will succeed where others fail because of our pride and passion, and because of the way we treat our customers, our suppliers and partners, and each other.

Managerial excellence requires a committed workforce. Alaska Airlines’ pledge of respect for people is one of the key elements of a world-class operation.

Effective organizations require talented, committed, and trained personnel. Alaska Airlines conducts comprehensive training at all levels. Its “Flight Path” leadership training for all 10,000 employees is now being followed by “Gear Up” training for 800 front-line managers. In addition, training programs have been developed for Lean and Six Sigma as well as for the unique requirements for pilots, flight attendants, baggage, and ramp personnel. Because the company only hires pilots into first officer positions—the right seat in the cockpit, it offers a program called the “Fourth Stripe” to train for promotion into the captain’s seat on the left side, along with all the additional responsibility that entails (see exterior and interior photos of one of Alaska Airlines’ flight simulators on the opening page of this chapter).

Customer service agents receive specific training on the company’s “Empowerment Toolkit.” Like the Ritz-Carlton’s famous customer service philosophy, agents have the option of awarding customers hotel and meal vouchers or frequent flier miles when the customer has experienced a service problem.

Because many managers are cross-trained in operational duties outside the scope of their daily positions, they have the ability to pitch in to ensure that customer-oriented processes go smoothly. Even John Ladner, Director of Seattle Airport Operations, who is a fully licensed pilot, has left his desk to cover a flight at the last minute for a sick colleague.

Along with providing development and training at all levels, managers recognize that inherent personal traits can make a huge difference. For example, when flight attendants are hired, the ones who are still engaged, smiling, and fresh at the end of a very long interview day are the ones Alaska wants on the team. Why? The job requires these behaviors and attitudes to fit with the Alaska Airlines team—and smiling and friendly flight attendants are particularly important at the end of a long flight.

Visual workplace tools also complement and close the loop that matches training to performance. Alaska Airlines makes full use of color-coded graphs and charts to report performance against key metrics to employees. Twenty top managers gather weekly in an operations leadership meeting, run by Executive VP of Operations, Ben Minicucci, to review activity consolidated into visual summaries. Key metrics are color-coded and posted prominently in every work area.

Alaska’s training approach results in empowered employees who are willing to assume added responsibility and accept the unknowns that come with that added responsibility.

Discussion Questions*

1. Summarize Alaska Airlines’ human resources focus in your own words.
2. Why is employee empowerment useful to companies such as Alaska Airlines?
3. What tools discussed in the chapter might be employed to enhance the company’s training and performance efforts? Why?

The human resources department for your company needs a program that will determine how much to deduct from an employee’s paycheck to cover healthcare costs. Health care deductions are based on several factors. All employees are charged at flat rate of $150 to be enrolled in the company healthcare system. If they are married there is an additional charge of $75 to cover their spouse/partner. If they have children, the cost is $50 per child. In addition, all employees are given a 10% deduction in the total cost if they have declared to be a “non-smoker”.

Your goal is to create a program that gathers the employee’s name, marital status, number of children and whether or not they smoke tobacco for a single employee. While gathering this information, if the user enters at least one invalid value, the program must display one error message telling the user they made a mistake and that they should re-run the program to try again. The program must then end at this point. However, if all valid values are entered, the program should calculate the total cost of the healthcare payroll deduction and then print a well-formatted report that shows the employee’s name, marital status, total number of children, and smoker designation, and total deduction amount.

Write a well-documented, efficient Java program that implements the algorithm you identified. Include appropriate documentation as identified in the documentation expectations document. Note: You must use the JOptionPane class for input/output. Additionally, if you use System.exit as shown in the textbook, it may only be used as the absolute last line in the program. You may not use System.exit, or any variant that exits the program in the middle of the program. The program should be designed to only exit once the algorithm has finished.

Do you think that human beings are essentially good or bad, or a combination of both? Why? Argue for, and bring evidence to support, the position you have taken. How does your position affect your approach to morality - for example, should a moral system be strict, clear, and absolutistic, or, permissive, flexible, and relativistic? Your answer should be in essay form, and a minimum of 500-700 words in length.

A common argument from contrarians of the human impact on global warming about the increase in CO2 levels of the atmosphere is that the increase in carbon dioxide by humans is only a small percentage of the total sources of emitted CO2. In other words, the argument is that humans cannot be the cause of the increase in warming of the climate since the added emissions is a small percentage of what is added to the atmosphere from natural forces like volcanoes. In your response, address the following: What are the natural carbon sources and sinks? How does the emission of carbon by humans affect this balance? Why is this argument short-sighted of the feedback mechanisms built into our ecosystem? How would you explain to this contrarian that his argument is missing a larger picture?

The human resources department for your company needs a program that will determine how much to deduct from an employee’s paycheck to cover healthcare costs. Health care deductions are based on several factors. All employees are charged at flat rate of $150 to be enrolled in the company healthcare system. If they are married there is an additional charge of $75 to cover their spouse/partner. If they have children, the cost is $50 per child. In addition, all employees are given a 10% deduction in the total cost if they have declared to be a “non-smoker”.

Your goal is to create a program that gathers the employee’s name, marital status, number of children and whether or not they smoke tobacco for a single employee. While gathering this information, if the user enters at least one invalid value, the program must display one error message telling the user they made a mistake and that they should re-run the program to try again. The program must then end at this point. However, if all valid values are entered, the program should calculate the total cost of the healthcare payroll deduction and then print a well-formatted report that shows the employee’s name, marital status, total number of children, and smoker designation, and total deduction amount.

Please write a pseudocode for the above problem. Don't forget to validate the inputs as necessary.

Research Psychologist A has been conducting a study with human subjects for nearly a year. As a result, A has come to know Participant M quite well. The study is taking longer than expected, and some of the participants are leaving the study. Because of the nature of the working relationship with the participants, Research Psychologist A and Participant M have become interested in an intimate relationship. Since neither one wants to jeopardize the progress of the study, they agree to retain only a professional relationship for the duration of the study, and then to pursue an intimate relationship once the study is completed and the results have been published.

address the ethical issues of this case and present options for resolving the ethical conflict. consider individual perceptions as well as the needs, potential, and motivation of the involved parties when positing your resolution.

Describe the ethical conflict in the scenario above.

Describe the options for resolving the ethical conflict including the interpersonal perceptions and other considerations that influence the options. (Benchmarks: Relationships, Spirit and Self-Discovery C8.2: Evaluate changes in one's ability to be perceptive of others.)

Identify the preferred option for resolving the conflict, and explain why it is the best option. How does this option address the needs, potential, and motivations of the involved parties? (Benchmarks: Relationships, Spirit and Self-Discovery C8.3: Synthesize the potential and motivations of self and others.)

Propose steps Research Psychologist A should take to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Suppose you are at a party, and one of your human friends decides to run around the room screaming "I'm a jawed fish." It's not a costume party, so the other guests look at your friend a bit oddly-- actually a lot oddly-- and they edge away. But you stand up and say that your friend is right. Assuming that the other partygoers are trained in phylogenetic systematics, what argument could you make to convince them? Your answer will be most convincing if it is constructed in complete sentences and uses specific and appropriate terms (spelled correctly); you could also use figures to help illustrate the point you are making.

Please review the following scenario and place yourself in the position of the new Human Resource Manager for Acme Manufacturing. Once you understand the circumstances of the problems in this organization, please respond to the questions that the General Manager has posed.

Scenario: You just started work as the new Human Resources Manager for Acme Manufacturing, a Fortune 1,000 company. The job was vacant for 6 months prior to your hiring. You have wondered about this, especially since reading about employee harassment incidents and fights recently in the news.

The General Manager (GM) calls you into his office the minute you arrive. He shuts the door after saying a quick word of welcome and begins to tell you about an incident that happened last week that needs your immediate attention. The company's manufacturing operation runs three shifts of production workers so that the plant is operating 24/7. Over the past 6 months, hostilities have arisen between employees on the third and first shifts. What started out as jeering and criticisms by the first shift, claiming they have to clean up the mess and complete all of the work left undone by the third shift, has escalated to physical confrontations and altercations. Although the GM says that aggressive bantering back and forth is common for shift workers in manufacturing, he admits that he is worried about further violent escalation. The GM says he needs your help.

• Where do you think that this evaluation should begin? In your reply, explain your reasoning.
• Explain the different levels of disciplinary actions that will be used for the Acme Manufacturing Company. Your reply should include the levels of discipline and 1 example of a disciplinary action for each level.
• How would you determine the disciplinary action appropriate for the employees involved in this scenario? Your response should include your reasoning.
• Why would you draft policies and procedures associated with disciplinary actions for the workplace? Provide a minimum of 2 reasons in your response.
• How would you ensure that the entire workforce is trained on these new policies and procedures? Provide 1 example in your response.

Write a 5–7-page memo to the GM that provides your responses to his questions above. Be sure to cite any references used in proper APA format.