When selecting a sample, there are several methods of selection available.

A company with hundreds of employees has hired a third party human resources agency. The agency is to study the employees and their level of job satisfaction, and to discover if the company needs to change anything about its management of human resources.

As part of this study, the agency wants to survey a selection of employees from within the company. Four members of the agency propose four different sampling plans for the survey.

Alvin: 'The marketing department of the company is reflective of the rest of the company in terms of job satisfaction. We should simply survey that department.'

Bonnie: 'We have access to the names of every employee in the company. We should survey 50 people from the company by putting every name in a list and choosing 50 names completely at random.'

Crystal: 'The company is made up of 60% men and 40% women. I believe that men and women will have different levels of job satisfaction, and we should force our sample to have 60% men and 40% women.'

Donald: 'As Bonnie says, we should put every name in a list. However, we should only pick one person at random, from the first ten people on the list, and then pick every tenth person thereafter.'

a)The member that is proposing a cluster sample is:

1) Alvin
2) Bonnie
3) Crystal
4) Donald

b)From the list below, select the correct statement about sampling selection methods:

1) Systematic sampling guarantees that every sample of a given size stands an equal chance of being selected.
2) Stratified sampling guarantees that every sample of a given size stands an equal chance of being selected.
3) Cluster sampling guarantees that every sample of a given size stands an equal chance of being selected.
4) None of the above statements are correct.

A bank has been losing customers over the past year. Whenever a customer closes their account with the bank, they are always asked why (so the bank has some idea of the services that it needs to improve). However, it would like to gather more information on what its current customers think, to see if there are any other areas that it needs to work on.

The bank has 100,000 customers. Every customer name is put into an ordered list, effectively giving each customer a number from 1 to 100,000. The bank then generates 500 unique random numbers between 1 and 100,000 and selects the customers that correspond to these numbers. The bank surveys these 500 customers.

This is an example of:

Supplemental Case Chapter 5: Gain Sharing at CircleWorks CircleWorks has been making custom bicycles for biking enthusiasts for nearly fifty years. The family-run company has had much success using small teams of employees to build bicycles to meet customer specifications. The custom built bikes have been in consistent demand and CircleWorks has maintained their position as a leader in the market. But, as a new generation of bike builders enters the workforce, Human Resources Director Sheila Gaines is concerned about employee motivation. She is considering offering incentives to encourage better teamwork, more employee involvement and improved productivity. Introducing incentive pay is a challenge at CircleWorks as it runs contrary to the organizational culture. The family who started the company believed strongly in hard work and traditional management practices and this view dominates the organizational culture. The company President has suggested to Sheila that employees should be motivated only by the satisfaction of getting the job done. Further, company management is somewhat resistant to employee involvement in decisions. While they have always had a suggestion box available, very rarely does management look to employees for input on operations. Advancing technology has allowed many changes in production techniques and management believes that the design engineers are in the best position to guide changes in the work processes. The bikes are built using teams of four to five workers who follow specific directions on building each bike. Because the bike designs are fairly intricate, each bike takes a designated amount of time to build and there is not much variability in the speed of production. However, Sheila has noted that some teams do work together better than others and wants to reward such cooperation. She has considered productivity bonuses awarded to the teams, but has also considered implementing a gain sharing plan. Sheila believes that some incentives directed at all employees as opposed to the individual teams may promote more cooperation overall within the company. Further, as new workers with varied talents enter their workforce, Sheila wants to provide some incentives for the employees to make improvements to the production process. As she prepares to meet with the company President, she must decide if a gain sharing plan is the best recommendation Read the case study and provide a recommendation to assist Human Resources Director Sheila Gaines in deciding whether a gain sharing plan is the best option for CircleWorks. Be sure to follow APA guidelines and write your paper in the proper format

company produces camping equipment: tents, sleeping bags, and tarps. They are implementing a new accounting software and want to take the opportunity to implement activity based costing for their products. For the upcoming year, they expect to produce and sell 300,000 sleeping bags, 200,000 tents and 150,000 tarps.

Because the employees in HR, Engineering and Facilities are salaried, and because the Building Rent and Machine depreciation are in the Facilities department, the Human Resources, Facilities Maintenance, and Engineering and Quality Departments are considered to be all Fixed Costs. The production departments include costs for hourly workers, spare parts, and utilities, therefore, the Fabrication and Assembly Production Departments are considered to be all Variable Costs.

The departments, costs and other related information are as follows:

Current Sales Prices are $60 each for Sleeping Bags, $120 each for Tents, and $35 each for Tarps.

Your company wants to determine standard costs as well as understand the drivers for their costs. You have been requested to complete the following calculations. Each calculation should show the fixed cost, variable cost and total cost.

Using the step-down method, allocate costs from the support departments to the production departments.

Calculate the Hourly Operating Rate for each production department, and calculate the annual production costs for each product line.

Calculate the Standard Cost per unit for each Product type.

Calculate the Contribution Margin per unit, Standard Gross Profit per unit, Gross Margin Percentage and Total annual gross profit for each Product type.

Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march MODULE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TOTAL MARKS 60 MARKS 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)

Questions

Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy.

Chapter 5 Carter Cleaning Centres—Continuing Case Part 5

Cleaning in a Dynamic Economic Environment

While in college, Jennifer was especially interested in labour forecasting. She learned that a key component of HR planning was forecasting the number and type of workers an organization needed, and to be prepared to re-evaluate those numbers when necessary. Her father had often discussed with Jennifer how his labour demand was dependant on the business cycle—that is, during periods of economic boom when business was soaring more workers needed to be hired and trained, as well as during times of recession when fewer workers were required because the demand for cleaning services had declined. As the economic downturn worsened in 2009, revenues at Carter’s Cleaning Centres fell steeply. Many of their customers were simply out of work and didn’t need (or couldn’t afford) dry cleaning. In the midst of this downturn, Jack knew that he had to get employment costs under control. Realistically, the problem was that there wasn’t much room for cutting staffing in a store. Of course, if a store got very slow, they would double

up responsibilities by having a cleaner also perform the pressing or having the manager work the front counter. If sales only fell 15 to 20 percent per store, there really wasn’t much room for reducing employee head count because each store never employed many people in the first place.

When the economy started to recover and cleaning services were back in demand, Jack faced a labour shortage and needed to find ways to deal with the lack of trained pressers, while at the same time keeping the quality of his services high and customer service levels better than the competition.

Questions

1. What is human resources planning and how will it help Carter’s strategic plans?

2. Describe the steps in the human resources planning process and discuss the important elements within each that will benefit Carter’s Cleaning Centres.

3. Outline three quantitative techniques for forecasting future HR demand. Outline three strategies used to forecast internal HR supply.

4. Assume that Jennifer did not want to terminate any of her employees during periods of economic slowdown. Describe strategies Jennifer might use to deal with the labour surplus?

5. Assume that Jennifer was faced with rising demand for cleaning services and desperately needed to hire more workers, however she faced a labour shortage. Describe strategies she might use to handle a short-age without sacrificing quality or customer service levels.

MGMT HARDWARE, runs a chain of fourteen (14) building supplies stores located in four (4) Caribbean countries. The company caters for a wide set of products and services including, building materials, home delivery, household materials, retail sales, online ordering, drive through sales and order-online-pickup-in-store sales. The company has a centrally branded ecommerce website that caters to the needs of all four (4) countries and presents a consistent look and feel to all customers.

The locations within each country connect over a Metro-E wide area network (WAN) provided by FLOW, but there is no country-to-country connectivity. Mainly because the company grew by mergers and acquisitions, not all locations use the same Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Each store also has an “offline” server that ensures the location can still sell and receive stock when the WAN goes down. Within a country, each store has a local Point-of-Sale (POS) but these all replicate back to a central hub in the main country office. Replication occurs once every 15 minutes, so the country head office is virtually up-to-date, in real time and can see, at a glance, transactions in each store.

As a new employee of MGMT HARDWARE, your manager wants you to produce some reports, related to stock and sales for an upcoming trade show that the purchasing team will be attending.

Congratulations, you have been promoted! You are now a manager in one of the departments of MGMT HARDWARE, and you get to choose your department.

Prior to the Metro-E, the company did not have a distributed POS, and sales reports from each site were manually combined in excel for analysis. In a similar way each location had its own telephone system. Now the company even allows VPN connectivity for the purchaser, when on business trips, to access reports and use her soft-phone. The Metro-E, VPN and internet access have changed everything.

1. From the perspective of your human resource and as an operational human resource manager:

1. 1. Suggest ONE advantage for the POS and ONE advantage for the phones.
   2. Request information from TWO other departments that could assist in your investigation. Please specify both the TYPE and specific CONTENTS of the report you are requesting (Unit 3 types of output)
2. From the perspective of your department and management level, discuss the implications of backup and recovery over Metro-E and into the cloud.
3. i. Suggest ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage.
4. Discuss ONE security consequence that could arise from VPN access to the company’s IT infrastructure.

Properly poised and magnificently coiffed, Michelle entertains the room. After taking one last spoonful of soup, she politely excuses herself from the dinner table and retreats to the bathroom. Uncovering a toothbrush concealed in her purse, she pushes the toothbrush down her throat and gags. With this behavior, Michelle conceals much more than a toothbrush.

Patterns of mental illness might be concealed all too well by external variables, such as a successful lifestyle, a well-groomed appearance, or a dynamic personality. At times, those suffering with mental illness may be able to control external variables, thus hiding any signs and symptoms. As a result, the differentiation between mental health and mental illness is not always so clear. As a future professional in the field of psychology, you must consider how mental health differs from mental illness for an accurate diagnosis on the basis of the DSM.

For this Discussion, consider the different ways to conceptualize mental health and mental illness in the field of psychology. Think about how this conceptualization may influence your assessment and diagnosis of a client.

With these thoughts in mind:

A brief explanation of the different ways in which mental health and mental illness may be conceptualized in the field of psychology. Then explain at least two ways in which this conceptualization may influence your assessment and diagnosis of a client. Provide examples based on current literature and Learning Resources.

Resources

· Paris, J. (2015). The intelligent clinician’s guide to the DSM-5 (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from the Walden Library.

Chapter 2, “The History of Diagnosis in Psychiatry”

Chapter 4, “What Is (and Is Not) a Mental Disorder”

· Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59(1), 20–28.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Davydov, D. M., Stewart, R., Ritchie, K., & Chaudieu, I. (2010). Resilience and mental health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(5), 479–495.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Payton, A. R. (2009). Mental health, mental illness, and psychological distress: Same continuum or distinct phenomena? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50(2), 213–227.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Pierre, J. M. (2012). Mental illness and mental health: Is the glass half empty or half full? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 57(11), 651–658. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Q7. Enterprise Industries produces Fresh, a brand of liquid laundry detergent. In order to manage its inventory more effectively and make revenue projections, the company would like to better predict demand for Fresh. To develop a prediction model, the company has gathered data concerning demand for Fresh over the last 30 sales periods (each sales period is defined to be a four-week period).

y = β₀ + β₁x1+ β₂x2 + β₃x3+ β₄D_B + β₅D_C + ε

(a) In this model the parameter β₄ represents the effect on mean demand of advertising campaign B compared to advertising campaign A, and the parameter β₅ represents the effect on mean demand of advertising campaign C compared to advertising campaign A. Use the regression output to find and report a point estimate of each of the above effects and to test the significance of each of the above effects. Also, find and report a 95 percent confidence interval for each of the above effects. Interpret your results. (Round your answers to 4 decimal places.) Point estimate of the effect on the mean of campaign B compared to campaign A is b4 = ____ The 95% confidence interval = [ ___ , ___ ]   Point estimate of the effect on the mean of campaign C compared to campaign A is b5 = ____   he 95% confidence interval = [ ___ , ___ ] Campaign ____ is probably most effective even though intervals overlap

(b) The prediction results at the bottom of the output correspond to a future period when Fresh’s price will be x1

= 3.73, the average price of similar detergents will be x2 = 3.92, Fresh’s advertising expenditure will be x3 = 6.51, and advertising campaign C will be used. Show how yˆ = 8.59907 is calculated. Then find, report, and interpret a 95 percent confidence interval for mean demand and a 95 percent prediction interval for an individual demand when x1 = 3.73, x2 = 3.92, x3= 6.51, and campaign C is used. (Round your answers to 5 decimal places.)   y-hat _____ Confidence interval [ __ , __ ]    Prediction interval [ __ , __ ]

(c) Consider the alternative model      y = β₀ + β₁x1+ β₂x2 + β₃x3+ β₄D_A + β₅D_C + ε Here D_A equals 1 if advertising campaign A is used and equals 0 otherwise. Describe the effect represented by the regression parameter β₅.

Write 3 paragraphs for reflection and should be do the following:

1. In first paragraph, Summarize the article (attached below). (Don't plagiarism from article. Please use your own words to summarize)
2. In second paragraph, Connect the article with one of those
"Archaeological methods" or "Early farming and the rise of cities" or "Archaeological record – the material artifacts and environmental evidence". Be specific about the connections you make.
3. In third paragraph, Include your own reflection on what you’ve read/learned. What do you think about it?

Article Here: "First evidence of farming in Mideast 23,000 years ago"
Until now, researchers believed farming was "invented" some 12,000 years ago in the Cradle of Civilization -- Iraq, the Levant, parts of Turkey and Iran -- an area that was home to some of the earliest known human civilizations. A new discovery by an international collaboration of researchers from Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, Bar-Ilan University, and the University of Haifa offers the first evidence that trial plant cultivation began far earlier -- some 23,000 years ago. The study focuses on the discovery of the first weed species at the site of a sedentary human camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was published in PLOS ONE and led by Prof. Ehud Weiss of Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with Prof. Marcelo Sternberg of the Department of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants at TAU's Faculty of Life Sciences and Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef of Harvard University, among other colleagues. "While full-scale agriculture did not develop until much later, our study shows that trial cultivation began far earlier than previously believed, and gives us reason to rethink our ancestors' capabilities," said Prof. Sternberg. "Those early ancestors were more clever and more skilled than we knew."

Evidence among the weeds

Although weeds are considered a threat or nuisance in farming, their presence at the site of the Ohalo II people's camp revealed the earliest signs of trial plant cultivation -- some 11 millennia earlier than conventional ideas about the onset of agriculture. The plant material was found at the site of the Ohalo II people, who were fisher hunter-gatherers and established a sedentary human camp. The site was unusually well preserved, having been charred, covered by lake sediment, and sealed in low-oxygen conditions -- ideal for the preservation of plant material. The researchers examined the weed species for morphological signs of domestic-type cereals and harvesting tools, although their very presence is evidence itself of early farming. "This uniquely preserved site is one of the best archaeological examples worldwide of the hunter-gatherers' way of life," said Prof. Sternberg. "It was possible to recover an extensive amount of information on the site and its inhabitants". "Because weeds thrive in cultivated fields and disturbed soils, a significant presence of weeds in archaeobotanical assemblages retrieved from Neolithic sites and settlements of later age is widely considered an indicator of systematic cultivation," according to the study.

Early gatherers

The site bears the remains of six shelters and a particularly rich assemblage of plants. Upon retrieving and examining approximately 150,000 plant specimens, the researchers determined that early humans there had gathered over 140 species of plants. These included 13 known weeds mixed with edible cereals, such as wild emmer, wild barley, and wild oats. The researchers found a grinding slab -- a stone tool with which cereal starch granules were extracted -- as well as a distribution of seeds around this tool, reflecting that the cereal grains were processed for consumption. The large number of cereals showing specific kinds of scars on their seeds indicate the likelihood of those cereals growing in fields, and the presence of sickle blades indicates that these humans deliberately planned the harvest of cereal. The new study offers evidence that early humans clearly functioned with a basic knowledge of agriculture and, perhaps more importantly, exhibited foresight and extensive agricultural planning far earlier than previously believed.