Organizational structure and culture which affect employee behavior and success - Chapters 15 & 16 Organizational behavior 18th edition

Scenario (fictional)

An industry consulting firm has the following structure and culture:

All the employees at this consulting firm work full-time. All the full-time consultants report to various industry directors depending on the industry contract. The company employees work mostly from home with directors or consultants renting temporary office space with or without videoconferencing when needed for either client meetings or vendor meetings. The company is very successful and has an expanding client base.

The company CEO is extremely relaxed and extremely smart and expects everyone at the company to display a relaxed yet expert demeanor as well. There really are very few rules or expectations at the company as the CEO also believes in keeping processes very simple.

The previous president retired about six months ago, and the CEO, together with a human resources firm hired a new president. About two months ago, the company's employees(i.e. consultants) started receiving emails from the new president putting pressure on all of them to produce results in less time but pressuring them to charge clients higher sums without making any more money for themselves. In addition, the new president wants the staff to come into the office now three times a week for meetings. Three months ago the new president hired thirty new full-time consultants that seem more like salespersons than consultants to existing employees. A few of the long-time consultants have been emailing the CEO about these changes and suggesting they may go elsewhere. In the meantime, the Finance Director has detected several anomalies in the contract terms and financial results from some of the new consultants and one or two of the existing consultants.

Describe the organizational structure at this consulting firm and how it affects employee behavior.

Describe how the changes to the organization's culture might affect employee behavior.

Provide a recommendation for any adjustments you think need to be made as this organization based on the reading and explain why.

The local healthcare market's dynamics are changing and evolving due to the increased competition between healthcare providers and systems. Things are looking up for Community Memorial as it tries to transition to a value-based care delivery system! But one day, just before lunch, you get a call from Bill Jacobs, the human resource director at Commercial Intertech (CI), the largest employer in the community. Bill says, "I wanted you to hear it from me first. We signed a contract yesterday with MegaPlan Health. It will be the managed care organization for all 4,500 of our employees and their families. About 9,000 patients total. I'm sure that you will want to get a contract with MegaPlan as soon as possible. I noticed that your hospital is not in its preferred provider network (PPN), and I am pretty sure that you will want to be so that our employees can continue using the facility." By the time you thank Bill for the heads up, the acid is already churning in your stomach. In the hospital world, MegaPlan is known for cutthroat tactics, negotiating steep discounts with hospitals, and fighting every claim the hospital makes. Commercial Intertech has every right to contract with any health insurance provider it likes, but now you have a problem. If you cannot get a decent contract with MegaPlan and become part of its PPN, many local patients may bypass your hospital and go the closest PPN facility. Delivered to your office this afternoon, by no coincidence, is a contract proposal from MegaPlan. It calls for the hospital to provide a 35% discount from charges to MegaPlan and all of its members. And it includes service preauthorization requirements that will make life very difficult for your business office. You know from experience that the hospital loses money whenever the discount from charges exceeds 20%.

You are the hospital CFO, trying to solve the managed care problem, so what will you do? Whose advice makes the most sense to you in this situation, and how will you proceed?

Present your comments in a one- to two-page paper, explaining how you will proceed.

Chapter 7: Releasing Chemical Energy

o How does the textbook first define cellular respiration? What does this process make for a cell? What does it make it with?

o Explain figure 7.2 – Substrates and products link photosynthesis with aerobic respiration. Explain how photosynthesis and aerobic respiration are natural partners in life.

o What is the fundamental difference in anaerobic respiration and aerobic respiration?

o What is fermentation? Is this aerobic or anaerobic respiration?

o Is a mitochondrion required in all organisms (aerobic and anaerobic respiration)

o When you exhale, you exhale CO2 gas, and breathing is medically referred to as respiration. Can you draw a link between a human exhaling CO2 gas in a process called respiration, and the process called aerobic respiration that you are learning about?

o Memorize the summary equation for aerobic respiration

o What are the names of the three steps of aerobic respiration

o What goes into each one….just the beginning.   

o What comes out of each one…what is being produced that is needed

o Where do each of the three steps occur inside a cell?

o What is the alternate name of the citric acid cycle?

o In the Citric Acid Cycle, NADH and FADH2 are produced. What do these NADH and FADH2 molecules provide to step 3 that is important?   

o How many ATP are produced from each step of aerobic respiration?

o Low carb diets often remove the sugar from the body that cells need in order to perform aerobic respiration. Yet, if aerobic respiration stopped, the organism would die. Explain how lipids and proteins can feed into the aerobic respiration pathways in the absence of carbohydrates (sugars)

o Critical thinking: Appreciate and understand that one of the most important reasons why you have evolved a heart, blood vessels, lungs, blood itself, red blood cells, and hemoglobin to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, is simply to provide the cell,

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specifically the mitochondrion, with all of the resources it needs to make ATP.

Working Hours at Zumaju Corp.

Zumaju Corp. is a newly established high-tech company, Currently it employs 80 workers, most of whom are male, under 30 years of age and nearly having at least a bachelor's degree. Employees who come late to work are a constant problem. All kinds of excuses are offered, the most common being the heavy traffic in the area near the office which is located in the centre of the city. Sometimes, the staff say they are late because they have to send their children to daycare facilities which do not open before 8.00 a.m., which mean they find it difficult to get to work by 8.30 a.m., the official starting time. There are also employees who often have to work at night because their customers are in countries with a major time difference to Malaysia. They complain that it is not fair that they should be expected to start work at 8.30 a.m. like everyone else. They are now threatening to leave, which is cause for concern as with their high level of skills they would be difficult to replace.

Last year, a local university which has a city branch very close to the premises of Zumaju Corp. started a Masters in Science programme on a part-time basis with specializations in information technology and business for science graduates. Several of the Zumaju workers are keen to enrol but are worried about clashes between classes and work-time.

Staff dissatisfaction in the company is increasing. The Director responsible for human resource is wondering whether a major review of working hours would help stem the potential outflow of talented workers

Case Questions:

1. What are the working hour options available to the company?

2. What steps should the company take to find out whether changing the working hours would solve the problem the company is facing?

Each pair of students need to prepare 1 written report (minimum 1,000 words) and present within 15 minutes the findings in class according to the following contents:

1. Introduction of the case study

2. Identification and elaboration of the problem (together with questions from the case)

3. Suggested solutions to the problem together with answering the questions from the case

4. Discussion on the suggestion

5. Conclusion

Can you do in excel and include the excel show formulas

The Air Marshal Co. has recently completed a $10,000,000 two-year marketing study.  Based on the results of this study, Air Marshal has estimated that 800 units of its new security electro-optical human scanning hardware, known as "Marshal Dillon," could be sold annually over the next 12 years, at a price of $110,000 the first year with an estimated 2% annual rise from inflation in years 2-6.  The sales price is expected to drop to $90,000 in year 7 due to increasing competition with 2% annual increase for year 8-12.  Variable costs per unit are $45,000 with an estimated 4% annual rise from inflation in years 2-12 and incremental cash fixed costs total $15 million per year all 12 years.   

Start-up costs include $120 million to build production facilities and an additional $10,000,000 for shipping and installation costs, $25 million for land, and net operating working capital is projected to be 12% of next year sakes. The production facility will be depreciated on a straight-line basis to a value of zero over the twelve-year life of the project.  At the end of the project's life, the facilities (including the land) will be sold for an estimated $25 million.  The value of the land is not expected to change during this time period.

Finally, start up would also entail one-time tax-deductible cash expenses of $5 million at year zero.  Air Marshal is an ongoing, profitable business and pays taxes at a 32% rate.  Air Marshal has a 10% opportunity cost of capital for projects such as this one.  

Be sure to answer to the following questions and express your numbers in millions of dollars where appropriate.   If your annual income should be a loss, assume that tax could be saved from other profitable parts of the company.

1. Please estimate the cash flows for all 12 years and provide a detailed statement of projected cash flows, as was done in the sample quiz solution.
2. Calculate the following for the project:  NPV, IRR, and MIRR.
3. Should Air Marshal proceed with the Marshal Dillon project?

Can you do in excel and include the excel show formulas

The Air Marshal Co. has recently completed a $10,000,000 two-year marketing study.  Based on the results of this study, Air Marshal has estimated that 800 units of its new security electro-optical human scanning hardware, known as "Marshal Dillon," could be sold annually over the next 12 years, at a price of $110,000 the first year with an estimated 2% annual rise from inflation in years 2-6.  The sales price is expected to drop to $90,000 in year 7 due to increasing competition with 2% annual increase for year 8-12.  Variable costs per unit are $45,000 with an estimated 4% annual rise from inflation in years 2-12 and incremental cash fixed costs total $15 million per year all 12 years.   

Start-up costs include $120 million to build production facilities and an additional $10,000,000 for shipping and installation costs, $25 million for land, and net operating working capital is projected to be 12% of next year sakes. The production facility will be depreciated on a straight-line basis to a value of zero over the twelve-year life of the project.  At the end of the project's life, the facilities (including the land) will be sold for an estimated $25 million.  The value of the land is not expected to change during this time period.

Finally, start up would also entail one-time tax-deductible cash expenses of $5 million at year zero.  Air Marshal is an ongoing, profitable business and pays taxes at a 32% rate.  Air Marshal has a 10% opportunity cost of capital for projects such as this one.  

Be sure to answer to the following questions and express your numbers in millions of dollars where appropriate.   If your annual income should be a loss, assume that tax could be saved from other profitable parts of the company.

1. Please estimate the cash flows for all 12 years and provide a detailed statement of projected cash flows, as was done in the sample quiz solution.
2. Calculate the following for the project:  NPV, IRR, and MIRR.
3. Should Air Marshal proceed with the Marshal Dillon project?

I know this is multiple questions, I am going to post it six times each time asking for a different question, but I also know these questions build off each other so I couldn't just post the prompt and one question without the others.

Please answer question 4 (or it all :D)

An existing industrial wastewater treatment plant fails to treat a new chemical, pentachlorophenol, leaving the facility in its waste stream. A concentration of 100 μg/L pentachlorophenol now passes through the wastewater treatment plant and is released into the Willimantic River (a class B water) that is stocked with trout. UConn draws drinking water from a well field adjacent to the Willimantic River. The wastewater treatment plant releases an average flow of 0.2 MGD into the river. The average flow of the Willimantic River just upstream
of the treatment plant is 100 cfs (ft3/s). Based on the chemical nature of pentachlorophenol, it adsorbs to the sediment as it travels downstream, resulting in a loss rate of about 0.01/day.
Answer the following questions:
1. Draw the system, a control volume, and label all knowns and unknowns, inputs, outputs, sources or transformations.
2. Identify the regulations that apply to the contaminant in this scenario and state the specific regulation and the maximum concentration that should not be exceeded to protect aquatic life and human health.
3. What are the risks posed by the contamination in this system? Identify all concerns you may have given the contaminant and the exposure in the environment. Justify this based on research on how the contaminant behaves in the environment and how people use the river.
4. Calculate the maximum concentration of pentachlorophenol in the stream right where it enters the Willimantic River. Draw what the concentration (y-axis) would be in the stream vs. distance and vs. time (x-axis). Estimate and justify any other parameters you may need.
5. Estimate at what distance downstream will the contaminant concentration meet the aquatic life criteria?
6. Research and explain two treatment processes that could be installed at the treatment plant to reduce the pentachlorophenol concentration. Explain the process and why it works for this particular chemical.

The effects of testosterone include choose one?

a. A decrease in basal metabolic rate. b. Skin thins and becomes drier. c. Bone density increases. d. Hair growth slows down. e. All of the above choices are correct.

Which of the following events occurs during meiosis II?

Select one: a. Production of 4 genetically distinct daughter cells b. Crossing over of homologous chromosomes c. Production of 2 haploid daughter cells d. Production of 4 identical, diploid daughter cells e. DNA replication

The female mammary glands:

Select one:

a. are modified sweat glands.

b. may contain large amounts of adipose tissue.

c. are attached to the pectoralis major muscle by suspensory ligaments.

d. contain alveoli that pass milk into lactiferous ducts.

e. All of the above are correct.

Which of the following have begun to develop in a 5 week-old embryo?

Select one:

a. A backbone (with a tail, for now).

b. Limb buds

c. Brain

d. Eye

e. All of the above are correct.

Which hormone rises immediately after fertilization and is thus used to identify pregnancy on urine testing strips?

Select one:

a. Estrogen

b. Luteneizing hormone

c. Follicle stimulating hormone

d. Human chorionic gonadotropin

e. Progesterone

The male urethra is capable of transporting urine and semen, just not simultaneously.

Select one:

True

False

Erection of the male genetalia occurs due to parasympathetic control of the arterioles.

Select one:

True

False

When a sperm fertilizes an ovum, this typically occurs in the cervix.

Select one:

True

False

Primary oocytes are formed before birth.

Select one:

True

False

During the third trimester of pregnancy, most estrogen and progesterone is being produced by the placenta.

Select one:

True

False

The ectoderm germ layer in an embryo gives rise to the digestive and respiratory systems.

Select one:

True

False

The placenta forms 6-7 days after ovulation.

Select one:

True

False

If the sperm cell contains a Y chromosome, then the resulting embryo will develop testes.

Select one:

True

False

Many food products contain small quantities of substances that would give an undesireable taste or smell if they are present in large amounts. An example is the "off-odors" caused by sulfur compounds in wine. Oenologists (wine experts) have determined the odor threshold, the lowest concentration of a compound that the human nose can detect. For example, the odor threshold for dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is given in the oenology literature as 25 micrograms per liter of wine (µg/l). Untrained noses may be less sensitive, however. Here are the DMS odor thresholds for 10 beginning students of oenology.

41 32 24 35 33 26 36 22 30 31

Assume (this is not realistic) that the standard deviation of the odor threshold for untrained noses is known to be σ = 7 µg/l.

(a) Make a stemplot to verify that the distribution is roughly symmetric with no outliers. (A normal quantile plot confirms that there are no systematic departures from normality. Enter numbers from smallest to largest, separated by spaces. Enter NONE for stems with no values.)

2

2

3

3

4

(b) Give a 95% confidence interval for the mean DMS odor threshold among all beginning oenology students. (Round your answers to three decimal places.) ,

(c) Are you convinced that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold, 25 µg/l? Carry out a significance test to justify your answer. (Use α = 0.05. Round your value for z to two decimal places and round your P-value to four decimal places.) z = P-value =

State your conclusion.

Reject the null hypothesis. There is significant evidence that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold.

Reject the null hypothesis. There is not significant evidence that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold.

Fail to reject the null hypothesis. There is significant evidence that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold.

Fail to reject the null hypothesis. There is not significant evidence that the mean odor threshold for beginning students is higher than the published threshold.