1. (1 point). (True / False) Estimating parameters and testing hypotheses are two important aspects of descriptive statistics.
2. (1 point). (True / False) A statistic is calculated from a population and a parameter is calculated from a sample.
3. (1 point). (True / False) Descriptive statistics include visual display of data, measures of central tendency and dispersion.
(2 points each) What type of data (qualitative, discrete numerical, continuous numerical) is each of the following variables:
4. ______________________ The manufacturer of your laptop computer
5. ______________________ The number of tickets in a movie theater
(2 points each) Which level of data (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) is each of the following variables?
6. ______________________ Your social security number
7. ______________________ Temperature in degrees Celsius
8. (3 points). 1,000 names are selected from a phone book containing 50,000 people by choosing every 50th name. Which sampling method is this?
A) Simple random sample.
B) Systematic sample.
C) Stratified sample.
D) Cluster sample.
9. (3 points). From its 32 regions, the F.A.A. selects 6 regions, and then randomly audits 25 departing commercial flights in each region for compliance with legal fuel and weight requirements. This is an example of
A) simple random sampling.
B) stratified random sampling.
C) cluster sampling.
D) judgment sampling.
10. (3 points). Suppose we want to estimate vaccination rates among employees in state government, and we know that our target population is 55 percent male and 45 percent female. Our budget only allows a sample size of 200. We randomly sample 110 males and 90 females. This is an example of
A) simple random sampling.
B) stratified random sampling.
C) cluster sampling.
D) judgment sampling.
In: Statistics and Probability
The Children’s Hour Theatre is a local nonprofit organization that stages plays for children while allowing individuals who aspire to work in theatre an opportunity to try the craft. The theatre has a small administrative staff and the directors and actors are paid a fee for each performance which includes rehearsals. The Children’s Hour Theatre has planned five different productions with a total of 90 performances for this season. One of the classics presented is Peter and the Wolf. The theatre receives grants from donors to cover short falls from the discounted ticket prices that it charges. Therefore, the theatre only budgets its costs for each season. Some of the costs vary with the number of productions, some with the number of performances and some are fixed.
Fixed element Variable element Variable element
Per season Per Production Per Performance
Director & Actor wages $0 $0 $2,175
Stagehands wages $0 $0 $285
Ticket Booth & usher wages $0 $0 $120
Scenery, costumes & props $0 $20,500 $0
Theater hall rent $0 $0 $500
Printed programs $0 $0 $235
Publicity $2,500 $825 $0
Administrative
expenses
$14,000
$700
$100
During the season, the theatre increased its productions to 6
and the performances to 120. The theatre's actual costs for the
season are listed below:
The Children’s Hour Theatre
Actual Costs
2019 Season
Director & Actor wages $ 260,250
Stagehands wages 34,500
Ticket Booth & usher wages 14,800
Scenery, costumes & props 120,900
Theatre hall rent 60,000
Printed programs 28,060
Publicity 7,535
Administrative expenses 31,245
Total Expenses $ 557,290
Required:
Prepare a flexible budget performance report showing both the
company's activity variances and spending variances for the theatre
season. Label each variance as favorable (F) or unfavorable
(U).
In: Accounting
Visual Searches
You probably notice every day that some objects in the environment are easier to notice than other objects. For example, workers at sports stadiums often wear bright yellow shirts, which are very easy to see. While the crowd may blend in together, the workers are prominent and are easy to notice when you want a drink or something to eat. In this assignment, you will further explore how people engage in visual searches and what features of a stimulus make a search easier.
Think of a time when you had to locate someone in a crowd, such as a participant in a parade, a friend in a packed theater, or a runner in a marathon. Based on your experience, respond to the following:
Were you successful in locating the person? What strategy did you use?
Did your search make use of the pop-out effect? How? If not, how might using the pop-out effect have resulted in a successful or quicker search?
Did you conduct a conjunctive search? If yes, how did the number of distracters and features affect your search?
Using the principles thereof, how would you make material in a long e-mail stand out in order to ensure that the reader notices it?
Visual searches are also very important in warnings. Warnings need to stand out from their background. The warning must first be noticed, then read and understood. For example, a stick figure could be performing an ambiguous action and have an "X" through it. You therefore understand that while you are not supposed to perform some action, you do not understand what that action actually is.
Give two examples of a poor warning. Did you understand them? Why did you have difficulties with them? What features could be modified to make the warnings more effective?
In: Psychology
Fenny owns a sole proprietorship in which she works as a management consultant. She maintains an office in her home where she meets with clients, prepares bills, and performs other work-related tasks. The home office is 350 square feet and the entire house is 4,000 square feet. Fenny incurred the following home-related expenses during the year. Unless indicated otherwise, assume Fenny uses the actual expense method to compute home office expenses.
|
Real property taxes |
$ 4,200 |
|
Interest on home mortgage |
15,400 |
|
Operating expenses of home |
6,000 |
|
Depreciation |
16,500 |
|
Repairs to home theater room |
1,200 |
A. What amount of each of these expenses is allocated to the home office?
B. What are the total amounts of tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 expenses, respectively, allocated to the home office?
C. If Fenny reported $2,500 of Schedule C net income before the home office expense deduction, what is the amount of her home office expense deduction and what home office expenses, if any, would she carry over to next year?
D. What is the total amount of from AGI deductions relating to the home that Fenny may deduct in the current year?
E. Assuming Fenny reported $2,500 of Schedule C income before the home office expense deduction, complete Form 8829 for Fenny’s home office expense deduction. Also assume the value of the home is $550,000 and the adjusted basis of the home (exclusive of land) is $514,821.
F. Assume that Fenny uses the simplified method for computing home office expenses. If Fenny reported $2,500 of Schedule C net income before the home office expense deduction, what is the amount of her home office expense deduction and what home office expenses, if any, would she carry over to next year?
In: Accounting
1 Point
If firms are competitive and profit maximizing, the price of a good equals the
marginal cost of production.
fixed cost of production.
total cost of production.
average total cost of production.
1 Point
Figure 14-14
Refer to Figure 14-14. Assume that the market starts in equilibrium at point W in panel (b) and that panel (a) illustrates the cost curves facing individual firms. Suppose that demand increases from D0 to D1. Which of the following statements is correct?
Points W, Y, and Z represent both short-run and long-run equilibria.
Points W, Y, Z, and X represent short-run equilibria.
Points W, Y, and Z represent long-run equilibria.
Points W and Z represent long-run equilibria.
1 Point
When a competitive market experiences an increase in demand that increases production costs for existing firms and potential new entrants, which of the following is most likely to arise?
The long-run market supply curve will be upward sloping.
The condition of free entry into the market will be violated.
Producer profits will fall in the long run.
The long-run market supply curve will be horizontal as new firms enter and drive the price downward.
1 Point
Scenario 14-5
A study sponsored by the Food Consumer Safety Board found that consumption of irradiated tomatoes increased the health of laboratory rats. As a result of national press coverage of the report, the demand for irradiated tomatoes increased dramatically. Organic farmers were able to switch from organic production of tomatoes to irradiated production with no additional cost. Assume that the tomato market satisfies all of the assumptions of perfect competition.
Refer to Scenario 14-5. As a result of the increase in the demand for tomatoes, we would predict that in the short run that the
production of tomatoes would be at efficient scale.
price of tomatoes would rise.
total cost for existing irradiated tomato producers must rise.
number of firms in the market would fall as prices fall and firms exit the market.
1 Point
Figure 14-11
Refer to Figure 14-11. The figure above is for a firm operating in a competitive industry. If there were four identical firms in the industry, which of the following price-quantity combinations would be on the market supply curve?
Point
Price
Quantity
A
$4
16
B
$4
32
C
$6
6
D
$8
64
A only
A and C only
B only
B and D only
1 Point
You purchase a $30, nonrefundable ticket to a play at a local theater. Ten minutes into the show you realize that it is not a very good show and place only a $10 value on seeing the remainder of the show. Alternatively you could leave the theater and go home and watch TV or read a book. You place an $8 value on watching TV and a $6 value on reading a book.
You should leave the theater since the net benefit from seeing the remainder of the show is -$20, while going home will earn you at least $8 of satisfaction.
You should stay and watch the remainder of the show.
You should go home and watch TV.
You should go home and read a book.
1 Point
A firm that shuts down temporarily has to pay
its variable costs but not its fixed costs.
its fixed costs but not its variable costs.
both its variable costs and its fixed costs.
neither its variable costs nor its fixed costs.
1 Point
Figure 14-5
Suppose a firm operating in a competitive market has the following cost curves:
Refer to Figure 14-5. When market price is P7, a profit-maximizing firm's short-run profits can be represented by the area
P7 × Q5.
P7 × Q3.
(P7 - P5) × Q3.
We are unable to determine the firm’s profits because the quantity that the firm would produce is not labeled on the graph.
1 Point
Susan quit her job as a teacher, which paid her $36,000 per year, in order to start her own catering business. She spent $12,000 of her savings, which had been earning 10 percent interest per year, on equipment for her business. She also borrowed $12,000 from her bank at 10 percent interest, which she also spent on equipment. For the past several months she has spent $1,000 per month on ingredients and other variable costs. Also for the past several months she has taken in $3,500 in monthly revenue. In the short run, Susan should
shut down her business, and in the long run she should exit the industry.
continue to operate her business, but in the long run she should exit the industry.
continue to operate her business, but in the long run she will probably face competition from newly entering firms.
continue to operate her business, and she is also in long-run equilibrium.
1 Point
Scenario 14-1
Assume a certain firm in a competitive market is producing Q = 1,000 units of output. At Q = 1,000, the firm's marginal cost equals $15 and its average total cost equals $11. The firm sells its output for $12 per unit.
Refer to Scenario 14-1. At Q = 1,000, the firm's profits equal
-$200.
$1,000.
$3,000.
$4,000.
1 Point
Consider a competitive market with 50 identical firms. Suppose the market demand is given by the equation QD = 200 - 10P and the market supply is given by the equation QS = 10P. In addition, suppose the following table shows the marginal cost of production for various levels of output for firms in this market.
Output
Marginal Cost
0
--
1
$5
2
$10
3
$15
4
$20
5
$25
How many units should a firm in this market produce to maximize profit?
1 unit
2 units
3 units
4 units
In: Economics
1. The length of human pregnancies from conception to birth varies according to a distribution that is approximately Normal with mean 266 days and standard deviation 16 days. About 68% of all pregnancies last between
a. 250 and 282 days b. 234 and 298 days c. 218 and 314 days d. 250 and 266 days
2. The distribution of actual weights of chocolate bars produced by a certain machine is approximately Normal with mean 8.2 ounces and standard deviation of 0.1 ounces. What proportion of chocolate bars weigh under 8 ounces?
a. 13.5% b. 34% c. 16% d. 2.5%
3. Sixteen weighings of a small object on a sensitive scale result in 5.15 grams 4 times, 5.35 grams 4 times, 5.20 grams, 4 times and 5.30 grams 4 times, 16 total. If the standard deviation σ of weighings on this scale is .8 grams, what is an approximate 95% confidence interval for the true weight of the object?
4. A survey of 900 gun-owners who frequent a popular shooting range in Texas had a nearly 100% response rate. If only 18% of the respondents thought more laws on gun control should be enacted, the conclusion that less than 20% of people in the region support more gun laws would certainly be dubious due to which of the following?
a. large standard deviation of samples of size 900 b. nonresponse from the sample
c. sampling bias of respondents d. small sample size
5. Scores on a test for 8th graders range from 0 to 500. In a SRS of 400 students, the mean score is 335 and the standard deviation is 70. The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of x̅400 is what?
6.The weights of a sample of 400 2-year-olds in Kentucky yields
x̅400 is 21.2 pounds with a standard deviation of σ = 3
pounds. What is a 95% confidence interval for the weight of all
two-year-olds in Kentucky?
a. 18.2-21.5 pounds b. 15.2-27.2
pounds c. 21.185-22.015
pounds d. 20.9-21.5 pounds
7.When finding confidence intervals, the interval is smaller if
a.sample size and standard deviation are bigger b.sample size and standard deviation are smaller
c.sample size is bigger, but the standard deviation is smaller d.sample size is smaller, but standard deviation is bigger.
8. If the birth weights of the babies born annually in a hospital is Normal with a mean of 5 pounds 10 ounces and a standard deviation of 5 ounces, what percentage of babies are born weighing less than 5 pounds? (No table needed.)
a. 13.5% b. 2.5% c. 16% d. .3%
9. What percent of the babies born weigh between 5 pounds and 5 pound 5 ounces? (Again no table.)
a. 13.5% b. 47.5% c. 16% d. 34%
10. Of the 40 babies born during the first weeks of next month, how many are likely to be under five pounds?
a. 4 b. 2 c. 6 d. 1
11.) A random sample of 1,600 adults in a certain country shows that 72% have smart phones. What is a 80% confidence interval for the percentage of adults having smart phones in this country?
12.If 48% of the 400 voters sampled voted for candidate A over candidate B, what is a 95% confidence for p hat, the estimate for the percentage candidate p that A would receive?
13.Twenty-five randomly selected students are asked how many times a month they eat pizza. The average for this sample is x̅25= 11.75 times,but the population mean of all college students is claimed to be μ = 10.60 times. If the null hypothesis is H0 is μ = 10.60 times and the standard deviation σ = 5 times, should the null hypothesis be rejected at the 5% level of significance? (No table needed)
14. Is the distribution of incomes in the US described by a normal distribution with μ equal to the mean income?
15. The weights of baby orangutans has standard deviation 4 pounds. How large a sample of baby orangutans is necessary for the 95% margin of error to be .5 pounds?
a. 144 b. 324 c. 256 d. 900
16. A car manufacturer says their cars average 26 miles per gallon of gas at 65 miles per hour a standard deviation of σ = 2 miles per gallon.. A Consumer group tested 100 such cars and found the average x̅100 to be 25.4 miles per gallon. Is this sufficiently small to reject the null hypothesis H0: μ = 26 miles per gallon? (No table needed.)
a. Yes b. No c. Not enough information.
17. What is the probability that z, the standard normal distribution, is less than 1.75 standard deviations below the mean of zero?
a. 5% b. 4% c. 6% d. 7.4%
18. If two random samples of the heights of adult males in New York are taken, one of 400, the other of 900 people, which one would likely have the larger range from shortest to tallest?
a. the 400 person sample b. the 900 person sample c. they’d be equal
19. The p-value of a test of the null hypothesis is 3.5%. This means
a. the hypothesis is true with probability 3.5% or possibly less than 3.5% b. the alternative hypothesis is true with probability 3.5% or possibly less c. 3.5% is the probability of finding the observed or more extreme results when the null hypothesis (H 0) is true d. None of the above
20. One of the main reasons to be interested in the regression line of y on x is that
a. one can use it to predict y-values from different x-values b. one can determine the standard deviation of y
c. one can determine from it the values of the quartiles of x and y.
In: Statistics and Probability
For each scenarios below "hr strategy: responding to a union organizing drive, assume that the union won and is now bargaining for a contract.
As a local union leader developing a strike contingency plan, what particular concerns should you have in each scenario?
ACME AUTO PARTS Acme Auto Parts is a small nonunion manufacturer of auto parts located in a small town in the South. The work is repetitive and routine. There are no particular skill or educational requirements for the production employees. Acme sells nearly all its parts to the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) according to the specifications they provide. The highly unionized Big Three have largely outsourced the manufacturing of parts. Many of their traditional parts suppliers have closed their unionized operations in Michigan and opened nonunion plants in the South and in Mexico. The Big Three, however, continue to face competitive cost pressures from the Japanese car companies and therefore are continually trying to wring cost concessions from their suppliers. The parts workers at various companies that are still represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) face demands for concessions during every contract negotiation. The UAW is therefore trying to organize the nonunion parts factories. You have seen UAW organizers in town trying to contact Acme workers for the past few weeks. This morning you overheard two workers talking about the UAW.
THE ZINNIA The Zinnia is a 300-room hotel in the central business district of a major Midwestern metropolitan area. This is a full-service hotel—a hotel providing a wide variety of services including food and beverage facilities and meeting rooms—that caters to individual business travelers, convention attendees, and local businesspeople who need meeting space. The Zinnia emphasizes outstanding service and amenities and is owned by a prominent local real estate magnate, Ms. Lucy Baldercash, who closely monitors the management and financial performance of her diversified properties. Many of this city’s major hotels are unionized, and the Zinnia’s wage rates are equal to the local union wage scale. You feel that while the Zinnia’s employee benefit package is modest compared to what the union has been able to extract from your unionized competitors, it is competitive with other low-skilled occupations in the area—and is particularly generous for the undocumented immigrants that you have quietly hired to fill the dishwashing and room cleaning positions. You also feel that your unionized competitors are saddled with myriad work rules that restrict flexibility. The local union organizes aggressively and isn’t afraid to have public marches and demonstrations in support of its goal of social justice. But you thought your workers were content, and you were astonished to learn this morning that Zinnia workers have been quietly signing authorization cards. You received notice from the NLRB that a petition was filed by the local hotel union requesting an election covering back-of-the-house workers (kitchen, laundry, and room cleaning employees—not front-of-the-house employees like bellhops, bartenders, and waitresses) and that this petition was supported by signed authorization cards from 40 percent of the workers.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 273 School District 273 is a medium-sized public school district in a Northeastern state with a comprehensive bargaining law that includes teachers. The bargaining law allows strikes (except for police, firefighters, and prison guards) and also allows unions to be recognized through a card check recognition procedure if the employer does not object. Otherwise a representation election will be conducted when a petition is supported by 30 percent signed authorization cards. No employees in District 273 are represented by a union, though teachers in many neighboring districts are. District 273 receives 75 percent of its funding from the state based on a statewide per-student funding formula; the remainder comes from local property taxes and fees. To balance the state budget, school funding was reduced by 10 percent. School budgets are also being squeezed by rising health care costs. And teachers are frustrated by the state’s emphasis on standardized test scores; they feel they are losing control over educational standards and curriculum. A grassroots unionization effort started among some teachers at the district’s high school near the beginning of the school year. It is now the middle of the school year, and the leaders of this grassroots effort—which they are now calling the District 273 Teacher’s Association—claim to have signed authorization cards from 70 percent of the teachers, including large numbers at all the district’s schools. They have asked the school board to voluntarily recognize their union and schedule bargaining sessions to hear their concerns and negotiate a contract that preserves teachers’ input into the educational process.
WOODVILLE HEALTHCARE Woodville HealthCare is a for-profit health care provider formed through the merger of several networks of physicians. It operates 50 managed care clinics and employs 400 doctors in the West. The merger has resulted in a Page 228major restructuring of operations. Several clinics have been closed, and a number of new operating guidelines have been implemented. Doctors are now required to see more patients; specialty medical procedures and nongeneric prescriptions must be approved by the medical authorization department; and expensive procedures can negatively affect a doctor’s salary. Some doctors contacted a national doctors’ union that is affiliated with one of the largest U.S. unions, and an organizing drive was launched. After a petition was filed with the NLRB, Woodville filed objections and argued that the doctors were supervisors and therefore excluded from the NLRA. The NLRB eventually ruled that 100 of the doctors had supervisory responsibilities, but that 300 were nonmanagerial doctors. Woodville then spent $300,000 (plus staff time) on an antiunion campaign leading up to last week’s election for the 300 nonmanagerial doctors. The election results were 142 voting in favor of the union, 128 against. This is a slim seven-vote margin, and you have until tomorrow to decide whether to appeal the results of the election by filing objections with the NLRB. Several days before the election, the union’s website reported salary figures for Woodville’s top executives that were grossly inflated. You have also investigated several allegations of inappropriate union campaigning on the day of the election but have uncovered only weak evidence. Your attorney predicts that there is a 20 percent chance an appeal would succeed.
In: Operations Management
For each scenarios below "hr strategy: responding to a union organizing drive, assume that the union won and is now bargaining for a contract.
As an HR manager developing a strike contingency plan, what particular concerns should you have in each scenario?
ACME AUTO PARTS Acme Auto Parts is a small nonunion manufacturer of auto parts located in a small town in the South. The work is repetitive and routine. There are no particular skill or educational requirements for the production employees. Acme sells nearly all its parts to the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) according to the specifications they provide. The highly unionized Big Three have largely outsourced the manufacturing of parts. Many of their traditional parts suppliers have closed their unionized operations in Michigan and opened nonunion plants in the South and in Mexico. The Big Three, however, continue to face competitive cost pressures from the Japanese car companies and therefore are continually trying to wring cost concessions from their suppliers. The parts workers at various companies that are still represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) face demands for concessions during every contract negotiation. The UAW is therefore trying to organize the nonunion parts factories. You have seen UAW organizers in town trying to contact Acme workers for the past few weeks. This morning you overheard two workers talking about the UAW. THE ZINNIA The Zinnia is a 300-room hotel in the central business district of a major Midwestern metropolitan area. This is a full-service hotel—a hotel providing a wide variety of services including food and beverage facilities and meeting rooms—that caters to individual business travelers, convention attendees, and local businesspeople who need meeting space. The Zinnia emphasizes outstanding service and amenities and is owned by a prominent local real estate magnate, Ms. Lucy Baldercash, who closely monitors the management and financial performance of her diversified properties. Many of this city’s major hotels are unionized, and the Zinnia’s wage rates are equal to the local union wage scale. You feel that while the Zinnia’s employee benefit package is modest compared to what the union has been able to extract from your unionized competitors, it is competitive with other low-skilled occupations in the area—and is particularly generous for the undocumented immigrants that you have quietly hired to fill the dishwashing and room cleaning positions. You also feel that your unionized competitors are saddled with myriad work rules that restrict flexibility. The local union organizes aggressively and isn’t afraid to have public marches and demonstrations in support of its goal of social justice. But you thought your workers were content, and you were astonished to learn this morning that Zinnia workers have been quietly signing authorization cards. You received notice from the NLRB that a petition was filed by the local hotel union requesting an election covering back-of-the-house workers (kitchen, laundry, and room cleaning employees—not front-of-the-house employees like bellhops, bartenders, and waitresses) and that this petition was supported by signed authorization cards from 40 percent of the workers. SCHOOL DISTRICT 273 School District 273 is a medium-sized public school district in a Northeastern state with a comprehensive bargaining law that includes teachers. The bargaining law allows strikes (except for police, firefighters, and prison guards) and also allows unions to be recognized through a card check recognition procedure if the employer does not object. Otherwise a representation election will be conducted when a petition is supported by 30 percent signed authorization cards. No employees in District 273 are represented by a union, though teachers in many neighboring districts are. District 273 receives 75 percent of its funding from the state based on a statewide per-student funding formula; the remainder comes from local property taxes and fees. To balance the state budget, school funding was reduced by 10 percent. School budgets are also being squeezed by rising health care costs. And teachers are frustrated by the state’s emphasis on standardized test scores; they feel they are losing control over educational standards and curriculum. A grassroots unionization effort started among some teachers at the district’s high school near the beginning of the school year. It is now the middle of the school year, and the leaders of this grassroots effort—which they are now calling the District 273 Teacher’s Association—claim to have signed authorization cards from 70 percent of the teachers, including large numbers at all the district’s schools. They have asked the school board to voluntarily recognize their union and schedule bargaining sessions to hear their concerns and negotiate a contract that preserves teachers’ input into the educational process. WOODVILLE HEALTHCARE Woodville HealthCare is a for-profit health care provider formed through the merger of several networks of physicians. It operates 50 managed care clinics and employs 400 doctors in the West. The merger has resulted in a Page 228major restructuring of operations. Several clinics have been closed, and a number of new operating guidelines have been implemented. Doctors are now required to see more patients; specialty medical procedures and nongeneric prescriptions must be approved by the medical authorization department; and expensive procedures can negatively affect a doctor’s salary. Some doctors contacted a national doctors’ union that is affiliated with one of the largest U.S. unions, and an organizing drive was launched. After a petition was filed with the NLRB, Woodville filed objections and argued that the doctors were supervisors and therefore excluded from the NLRA. The NLRB eventually ruled that 100 of the doctors had supervisory responsibilities, but that 300 were nonmanagerial doctors. Woodville then spent $300,000 (plus staff time) on an antiunion campaign leading up to last week’s election for the 300 nonmanagerial doctors. The election results were 142 voting in favor of the union, 128 against. This is a slim seven-vote margin, and you have until tomorrow to decide whether to appeal the results of the election by filing objections with the NLRB. Several days before the election, the union’s website reported salary figures for Woodville’s top executives that were grossly inflated. You have also investigated several allegations of inappropriate union campaigning on the day of the election but have uncovered only weak evidence. Your attorney predicts that there is a 20 percent chance an appeal would succeed.
In: Operations Management
For each scenarios below "hr strategy: responding to a union organizing drive, assume that the union won and is now bargaining for a contract.
As an HR manager developing a strike contingency plan, what particular concerns should you have in each scenario?
ACME AUTO PARTS Acme Auto Parts is a small nonunion manufacturer of auto parts located in a small town in the South. The work is repetitive and routine. There are no particular skill or educational requirements for the production employees. Acme sells nearly all its parts to the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) according to the specifications they provide. The highly unionized Big Three have largely outsourced the manufacturing of parts. Many of their traditional parts suppliers have closed their unionized operations in Michigan and opened nonunion plants in the South and in Mexico. The Big Three, however, continue to face competitive cost pressures from the Japanese car companies and therefore are continually trying to wring cost concessions from their suppliers. The parts workers at various companies that are still represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) face demands for concessions during every contract negotiation. The UAW is therefore trying to organize the nonunion parts factories. You have seen UAW organizers in town trying to contact Acme workers for the past few weeks. This morning you overheard two workers talking about the UAW.
THE ZINNIA The Zinnia is a 300-room hotel in the central business district of a major Midwestern metropolitan area. This is a full-service hotel—a hotel providing a wide variety of services including food and beverage facilities and meeting rooms—that caters to individual business travelers, convention attendees, and local businesspeople who need meeting space. The Zinnia emphasizes outstanding service and amenities and is owned by a prominent local real estate magnate, Ms. Lucy Baldercash, who closely monitors the management and financial performance of her diversified properties. Many of this city’s major hotels are unionized, and the Zinnia’s wage rates are equal to the local union wage scale. You feel that while the Zinnia’s employee benefit package is modest compared to what the union has been able to extract from your unionized competitors, it is competitive with other low-skilled occupations in the area—and is particularly generous for the undocumented immigrants that you have quietly hired to fill the dishwashing and room cleaning positions. You also feel that your unionized competitors are saddled with myriad work rules that restrict flexibility. The local union organizes aggressively and isn’t afraid to have public marches and demonstrations in support of its goal of social justice. But you thought your workers were content, and you were astonished to learn this morning that Zinnia workers have been quietly signing authorization cards. You received notice from the NLRB that a petition was filed by the local hotel union requesting an election covering back-of-the-house workers (kitchen, laundry, and room cleaning employees—not front-of-the-house employees like bellhops, bartenders, and waitresses) and that this petition was supported by signed authorization cards from 40 percent of the workers.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 273 School District 273 is a medium-sized public school district in a Northeastern state with a comprehensive bargaining law that includes teachers. The bargaining law allows strikes (except for police, firefighters, and prison guards) and also allows unions to be recognized through a card check recognition procedure if the employer does not object. Otherwise a representation election will be conducted when a petition is supported by 30 percent signed authorization cards. No employees in District 273 are represented by a union, though teachers in many neighboring districts are. District 273 receives 75 percent of its funding from the state based on a statewide per-student funding formula; the remainder comes from local property taxes and fees. To balance the state budget, school funding was reduced by 10 percent. School budgets are also being squeezed by rising health care costs. And teachers are frustrated by the state’s emphasis on standardized test scores; they feel they are losing control over educational standards and curriculum. A grassroots unionization effort started among some teachers at the district’s high school near the beginning of the school year. It is now the middle of the school year, and the leaders of this grassroots effort—which they are now calling the District 273 Teacher’s Association—claim to have signed authorization cards from 70 percent of the teachers, including large numbers at all the district’s schools. They have asked the school board to voluntarily recognize their union and schedule bargaining sessions to hear their concerns and negotiate a contract that preserves teachers’ input into the educational process.
WOODVILLE HEALTHCARE Woodville HealthCare is a for-profit health care provider formed through the merger of several networks of physicians. It operates 50 managed care clinics and employs 400 doctors in the West. The merger has resulted in a Page 228major restructuring of operations. Several clinics have been closed, and a number of new operating guidelines have been implemented. Doctors are now required to see more patients; specialty medical procedures and nongeneric prescriptions must be approved by the medical authorization department; and expensive procedures can negatively affect a doctor’s salary. Some doctors contacted a national doctors’ union that is affiliated with one of the largest U.S. unions, and an organizing drive was launched. After a petition was filed with the NLRB, Woodville filed objections and argued that the doctors were supervisors and therefore excluded from the NLRA. The NLRB eventually ruled that 100 of the doctors had supervisory responsibilities, but that 300 were nonmanagerial doctors. Woodville then spent $300,000 (plus staff time) on an antiunion campaign leading up to last week’s election for the 300 nonmanagerial doctors. The election results were 142 voting in favor of the union, 128 against. This is a slim seven-vote margin, and you have until tomorrow to decide whether to appeal the results of the election by filing objections with the NLRB. Several days before the election, the union’s website reported salary figures for Woodville’s top executives that were grossly inflated. You have also investigated several allegations of inappropriate union campaigning on the day of the election but have uncovered only weak evidence. Your attorney predicts that there is a 20 percent chance an appeal would succeed.
In: Operations Management
For each scenarios below "hr strategy: responding to a union organizing drive, assume that the union won and is now bargaining for a contract. As a local union leader developing a strike contingency plan, what particular concerns should you have in each scenario?
ACME AUTO PARTS Acme Auto Parts is a small nonunion manufacturer of auto parts located in a small town in the South. The work is repetitive and routine. There are no particular skill or educational requirements for the production employees. Acme sells nearly all its parts to the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) according to the specifications they provide. The highly unionized Big Three have largely outsourced the manufacturing of parts. Many of their traditional parts suppliers have closed their unionized operations in Michigan and opened nonunion plants in the South and in Mexico. The Big Three, however, continue to face competitive cost pressures from the Japanese car companies and therefore are continually trying to wring cost concessions from their suppliers. The parts workers at various companies that are still represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) face demands for concessions during every contract negotiation. The UAW is therefore trying to organize the nonunion parts factories. You have seen UAW organizers in town trying to contact Acme workers for the past few weeks. This morning you overheard two workers talking about the UAW.
THE ZINNIA The Zinnia is a 300-room hotel in the central business district of a major Midwestern metropolitan area. This is a full-service hotel—a hotel providing a wide variety of services including food and beverage facilities and meeting rooms—that caters to individual business travelers, convention attendees, and local businesspeople who need meeting space. The Zinnia emphasizes outstanding service and amenities and is owned by a prominent local real estate magnate, Ms. Lucy Baldercash, who closely monitors the management and financial performance of her diversified properties. Many of this city’s major hotels are unionized, and the Zinnia’s wage rates are equal to the local union wage scale. You feel that while the Zinnia’s employee benefit package is modest compared to what the union has been able to extract from your unionized competitors, it is competitive with other low-skilled occupations in the area—and is particularly generous for the undocumented immigrants that you have quietly hired to fill the dishwashing and room cleaning positions. You also feel that your unionized competitors are saddled with myriad work rules that restrict flexibility. The local union organizes aggressively and isn’t afraid to have public marches and demonstrations in support of its goal of social justice. But you thought your workers were content, and you were astonished to learn this morning that Zinnia workers have been quietly signing authorization cards. You received notice from the NLRB that a petition was filed by the local hotel union requesting an election covering back-of-the-house workers (kitchen, laundry, and room cleaning employees—not front-of-the-house employees like bellhops, bartenders, and waitresses) and that this petition was supported by signed authorization cards from 40 percent of the workers.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 273 School District 273 is a medium-sized public school district in a Northeastern state with a comprehensive bargaining law that includes teachers. The bargaining law allows strikes (except for police, firefighters, and prison guards) and also allows unions to be recognized through a card check recognition procedure if the employer does not object. Otherwise a representation election will be conducted when a petition is supported by 30 percent signed authorization cards. No employees in District 273 are represented by a union, though teachers in many neighboring districts are. District 273 receives 75 percent of its funding from the state based on a statewide per-student funding formula; the remainder comes from local property taxes and fees. To balance the state budget, school funding was reduced by 10 percent. School budgets are also being squeezed by rising health care costs. And teachers are frustrated by the state’s emphasis on standardized test scores; they feel they are losing control over educational standards and curriculum. A grassroots unionization effort started among some teachers at the district’s high school near the beginning of the school year. It is now the middle of the school year, and the leaders of this grassroots effort—which they are now calling the District 273 Teacher’s Association—claim to have signed authorization cards from 70 percent of the teachers, including large numbers at all the district’s schools. They have asked the school board to voluntarily recognize their union and schedule bargaining sessions to hear their concerns and negotiate a contract that preserves teachers’ input into the educational process.
WOODVILLE HEALTHCARE Woodville HealthCare is a for-profit health care provider formed through the merger of several networks of physicians. It operates 50 managed care clinics and employs 400 doctors in the West. The merger has resulted in a Page 228major restructuring of operations. Several clinics have been closed, and a number of new operating guidelines have been implemented. Doctors are now required to see more patients; specialty medical procedures and nongeneric prescriptions must be approved by the medical authorization department; and expensive procedures can negatively affect a doctor’s salary. Some doctors contacted a national doctors’ union that is affiliated with one of the largest U.S. unions, and an organizing drive was launched. After a petition was filed with the NLRB, Woodville filed objections and argued that the doctors were supervisors and therefore excluded from the NLRA. The NLRB eventually ruled that 100 of the doctors had supervisory responsibilities, but that 300 were nonmanagerial doctors. Woodville then spent $300,000 (plus staff time) on an antiunion campaign leading up to last week’s election for the 300 nonmanagerial doctors. The election results were 142 voting in favor of the union, 128 against. This is a slim seven-vote margin, and you have until tomorrow to decide whether to appeal the results of the election by filing objections with the NLRB. Several days before the election, the union’s website reported salary figures for Woodville’s top executives that were grossly inflated. You have also investigated several allegations of inappropriate union campaigning on the day of the election but have uncovered only weak evidence. Your attorney predicts that there is a 20 percent chance an appeal would succeed.
In: Operations Management