Consider the following situation as if you were Ian.

Ian was a senior analyst at a major hotel company. Although Ian worked mostly in corporate headquarters, he would occasionally travel to the field where he met with front-line employees and learned what was on their minds.

On a trip to Portland, Ian had the chance to speak with two people working at the front desk about what it was like to work at the hotel. Daniel, the younger of the two had joined the staff recently; Ellen, the other employee (and Daniel’s supervisor), had been with the company for almost 15 years. Both employees seemed particularly interested in talking with Ian because they rarely got a chance to talk directly to anyone from headquarters.

As the three discussed changes in the hospitality industry, Ellen and Daniel complained about their company’s aggressive cost control initiatives, spearheaded by the charismatic but frugal CEO, whose policies were occasionally unpopular. After a few more minutes of conversation, Ellen casually said, “The CEO is so tight with a buck, I wonder if he is Jewish.”

As a Jewish person, Ian did not know how to react. He had never actually experienced anything like this before, especially in a professional setting. Ian’s instinct was not to be combative or hostile, but he felt a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. Daniel looked a little surprised at his supervisor’s remark, but, laughing, he quickly changed the subject. Smiling, Ian made an excuse to end or discussion and walk away.

The next day Ian woke up still bothered by Ellen’s remark. While checking out, he saw Daniel at the front desk. Ian mentioned to him that he may want to tell his supervisor to watch her remarks about other peoples’ ethnicity, to which Daniel replied, “I know what you mean because I am Puerto Rican, but I think that she meant it as a joke.” Ian could see that Daniel just wanted to smooth the issue over.

On the ride to the airport, Ian kept thinking about what he might do. Should he report Ellen to Human Resources? The company had a process in place for such matters, but he was worried. Ian did not know who he was dealing with; maybe Ellen would retaliate if he said something, especially since she would know who filed the complaint. Plus, Ian was not sure what the consequences would be – he didn’t want to get her fired. Ian only wanted Ellen to know how offensive the comments were.

As a team, consider what steps Ian should take.

What are the concerns facing Ian?

Case Study

As the marketplace for goods and services becomes increasingly global, businesses must understand and embrace diversity in their brands as well as in their work forces. Simply having a diverse employee population is no longer enough, according to Forbes; for a company to succeed in today’s challenging economy, it must not only meet the needs of a multifaceted marketplace, it must respect different cultures, ideas and philosophies.

Innovation

One of the biggest reasons to employ a diverse workforce is the broad base of cultural experience that will drive innovation. Whether an employee is management, mid-level or entry level, when everyone in the work force has a similar background, the creative process that drives innovation and problem solving is similar. A new perspective that does not match this ‘group think’ is more likely to improve the business in a unique way.

Attracting Talent and Customers

Premier industry business talent prefers to work for or with a company that has a diverse work force. Customers also prefer to buy goods and services from diverse companies, too. These are two reasons that Forbes says to be truly successful in the global marketplace, a business must be authentically diverse. That means a company must develop a new model that embraces diversity as a central growth enabler.

From Recruitment to Strategy

Companies that embrace this authentic diversity will find that having only the requisite number of “minorities” in the workplace is not enough. Instead, according to Forbes, companies are developing “chief diversity officer” roles that touch more than just recruitment and human resources. These officers will instead have greater control over areas such as strategy, marketing and sales. Companies that have diversity among the management staff will more easily fulfil the needs of a broad customer base.

Cultural Intelligence

Perhaps the most compelling reason to employ the diverse work force is cultural intelligence. When fellow employees and customers are diverse, the opportunities not just to learn but to appreciate what values other cultures hold sacred are limitless. Adopting these values as part of the business’ core message and product fosters understanding between the cultures. When a business operates with diversity in mind, the opportunity for shared value - both in profit and society is greatly expanded.

Please help by reading and answer the questions below:

QUESTIONS

1. How might the innovation concept apply to diversity management?
2. How might new employees from a different background challenge group think and better contribute to diversity?
3. Why is cultural intelligence likely to increase diversity and does it affect management

Please provide the answer for the question posted above in no less than 1000 words

Thank you for the help

Question B3

Recently the employees of Ming News Ltd received a letter from the director of operations, Alex, explaining that a new production plant would be built in the New Bay Area. The letter also stated that about 80% of the employees from the current office would be transferred to the new plant and if employees wanted to volunteer for the transfer, they could inform the human resource manager. Tom, a production trainee, first went to David, the production manager, who had already volunteered to transfer, to discuss with him the benefit and career opportunity at the new plant. David shared with Tom about Alex’s new model of operation in the new office. It will take care of employee satisfaction. The new plant will take care to ensure employees have the best conditions to perform, ranging from free snack bars, sports facilities, a medical clinic, and so on.

Which dimension of organisational culture is Ming News Ltd going to emphasise in the new plant?

Question B4

ABC is a large hotel group with four hotels in the city. Last month, there was an outbreak of a disease in one of the hotels. About ten guests were sick and sent to hospitals for treatment. Luckily, there was no fatal case. Later, it was confirmed that the cleaning work of that hotel had not been done well. The government also investigated the incident that happened in this hotel. The hotel had to close for three days for throughout cleaning work before it could re-open to receive new guests. The hotel appointed Susan Wong, the assistant executive manager, to follow up the case to resolve various problems. She first supervised the cleaning work. Also, she had to investigate the causes leading to the incident and found out who were responsible for such outbreak. Lastly, she would make recommendations to top management on how to avoid the occurrence of similar problem in future.

Based on the above case, identify the Mintzberg's specific managerial role (other than the monitor role) performed by Susan Wong in managing the incident in this hotel group.

Question B5

Google has made some tremendous efforts in going green by slashing their energy usage and supporting green energy projects. For instance, Google has constructed one of the world’s most energy efficient data centers and continuously campaigns for the need for energy conservation and the use of renewable energy sources as well as clean energy products. Google has supported and funded green energy projects by buying and installing numerous windmills and solar panels. It looks for a way to protect the earth’s natural resources.

Based on the above case, identify the approach that Google has applied when going green.(2marks)

Six months into the project, the client reviews the progress and issues a stop-work order. The main issues identified during their review: There were different expectations about the complexity of graphics in course development and course materials. There were different opinions about the level of marketing required (marketing a course versus the entire academy, no post-course promos, etc.). There were issues with instructors. There were instances where instructors had rescheduled on multiple occasions or cancelled. There were concerns about the subject matter experts (SMEs). SMEs had been hired outside of the budgeted amount. There were also concerns about the SMEs not providing the level of technical writing expertise required, which resulted in having to hire additional technical writers. DRA PS addressed some of these concerns by removing the videotaping requirement during the analysis phase and removing the repeat courses that were going to be offered during the final contract year. By eliminating videotaping and repeat courses, the remaining courses to be developed and presented were stretched over the rest of the contract (2 ½ years). This means that instead of developing and offering the 15 courses using two teams in a staggered fashion over two years, DRA PS must reduce staff. Currently there are three senior instructional designers, six graphic artists, three document specialists, six technical writers, three subject matter experts, and two editors assigned to the teams. Your subject matter experts are consultants under contract. You don’t want to lose your staff, but you may have no choice but to let some go. 12 © 2008 Society for Human Resource Management. Marcia R. Gibson, Ed.D. Some of the employees resign when they hear the news. Three instructional designers quit and the remaining three are searching for new jobs. All your technical writers have résumés out to potential employers. Your senior graphics lead, a person you count on, has a job offer with another organization. What will you do to maintain a staff to meet the contractual changes and ensure a quality product? What can you do to retain your employees and instill confidence that the program is stable?

Answer the following:

1. What are your primary retention issues? What challenges do the existing recruitment and retention policies and guidelines create?

2. What can be done to retain existing employees? How will you motivate the current team?

3. How will you go about replacing the ones who have left (positions that are still needed)?

4. Create a communication plan to alleviate any further issues regarding retention and recruitment. How will you implement your strategy?

Question 1: Use the eight phases of the communication process to analyze a miscommunication you’ve once had with a classmate, teacher, friend, or family member. What idea were you trying to share? How did you encode and transmit it? Did the receiver get the message? How do you know? Based on your analysis, identify and explain the barriers prevented your successful communication in this instance.

Question 2: Based on what you studied in chapter 1, explain why you think this situation is an ethical dilemma or an ethical lapse.

Mark worked as a marketing specialist for 10 years in a well-known car company. Due to financial issues, he lost his job with the company. After about 6 months, he found a new job in another company with the same position he used to hold before. To impress his supervisor, he shared with him confidential information about his previous (competing) employer's major clients.

Question 3:After five years of work in the human resources department at Cell Genesys ( a company that is developing cancer treatment drugs), you were laid off in a round of cost cutting moves that rippled through the biotech industry in recent years. The good news is that you found stable employment in the grocery distribution industry. The bad news is that in the three years since you left Cell Genesys, you have truly missed working in the exciting biotechnology field and having the opportunity to be a part of something as important as helping people recover from life-threatening diseases. You know careers in biotech are uncertain, but you have a few dollars in the bank now, and you’re willing to ride the rollercoaster again. This means going back to the biotech industry.

Your Task: Write an email to Calvin Morris, your old boss at Cell Genesys, reminding him of the time you worked together and asking him to write a letter of recommendation for you.

Question 4: Revise these sentences to be positive rather than negative.

1. You messed up the interview. Your answers were rude and inappropriate.
2. Despite our reminders, you have not specified the color of the electronic clocks. As we need time to make bulk arrangements, we cannot ship the shipment until you send us the information.

Question 5: Revise these sentences to eliminate bias.

1. James, an African American basketball player, lives in Los Angeles.
2. A pilot must have the ability to stay calm under pressure, and then he must be trained to cope with any problem that arises.
3. A company owned by a 65-year white woman earned a million dollars last year.

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow.

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 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)

QUESTION 1 (60) 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.

ROUTINE ANNOUNCEMENT

Relevant Concepts

•   Routine messages
•   Announcement messages
•   Sentence structure
•   Verb tense
•   Punctuation
•   Number usage
•   Professional tone
•   Understanding your audience

The following routine message announces required training for all employees as part of achieving an organizational goal. The week-long training will take place in October and will require completing some activities prior to the workshop. This message does not employ a professional tone and is unclear. Additionally, the message contains several verb errors (tense and passive voice), number usage errors, grammatical errors, spelling errors, and style errors. FIND THE ERRORS!!

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Diversity & Inclusion Training

Good afternoon:

CoB Associates will hold ten half day Cultural Intelligence workshops the week of October 12. As you know, strategic priority is diversity at CoB Associates, and this workshop is an important next step in addressing this strategic priority. The strategic priority components are.

1.   Improving all areas of diversity in the organisation encluding leadership, associates, and interns.
2.   Identifying ways for improvement gender and ethnic diversity throughout the organization.
3.   Develop a culture that welcomes diversity and tolerance.

After much research, CoB Associates joined with the Cultural Intelligence Center to collaborate in bringing diversity and tolerance a focal point to all members of our organization. The workshop is the next step in building a culture and awareness of all types of diversity. All workshops will take place in HRTR. Please review the list below for your assigned date and time (scheduled by department):

October 12, 8:00-12:00 Human Resources; 1:00-5:00 C Suite

October 13, 8:00-12:00 Accounting; 1:00-5:00 Design

October 14, 8:00-12:00 Sales, 1:00-5:00 Communications

October 15, 8:00-12:00 Consulting; 1:00-5:00 Support

October 16, 8:00-12:00 IT; 1:00-5:00 Makeup session

Watch for communications with detailed specifics to your assigned workshop day and time. This email will contain important instructions for completing required activities prior to the workshop. The Director of CoB Associates wants members of our organization too join in collaboration with the Cultural Intelligence Center.

Thank you for being a key part in CoB Associates achieving this strategic priority.

Kind regards,
Kate

--------------------------------

Kate C. Grace, HR Director
CoB Consulting Group
Office: 740-555-5551 | Cell: 740-555-5554

FIND THE ERRORS!!

           Name: Yarin Sanchez

Current Psychological Perspectives

For each of the following indicate the current psychological perspective illustrated (behavioral, biological, cognitive, sociocultural, evolutionary, humanistic, psychodynamic).

1.   A researcher who records the signals from the brain while a person smokes a cigarette most likely advocates the __________________ perspective.

2.   Ruchi is a graduate student in psychology who is doing research on how conflicts during childhood can produce personality disorders during adulthood. Dr. Ego, Ruchi’s research advisor, would most likely describe herself as an advocate of the ________________ perspective.

3.   Mikhail just bought a DVD entitled, “Feel better about your self in thirty days.” The psychologist who narrates the DVD emphasizes the positive qualities of human existence and stresses that people have a great potential for personal growth because they are constantly striving for self-actualization. The narrator most likely is using the _______________ perspective.

4.   Dr. Zaragoza studies the susceptibility of eyewitness reports to misleading information (e.g., reading the perpetrator was blond and not brunette). Dr. Zaragoza uses the ____________________ perspective in her studies.

5.   When a chore has been completed, Dr. Riccio has his child mark a checklist kept on the refrigerator. After the child has completed all of the assigned chores, the child receives an allowance. Dr. Riccio is using the ___________________ perspective to increase the likelihood of his child completing chores.

6.   Dr. Nagayama studies the incidence of child abuse as a function of social class and ethnic group. Dr. Nagayama uses the _______________ perspective in his research.

7.   Dr. A tries to help a client stop smoking by understanding the unconscious reasons for the client’s need to smoke. Dr. A encourages the client to talk about his childhood conflicts with his parents. Dr. A is using the ___________________ perspective in therapy.

8.   Dr. B tries to help a client stop smoking by telling her to keep a careful record of the number of cigarettes smoked and the particular people and situations who are a part of her smoking behavior. She keeps these records as a way of uncovering the factors that reward her for smoking so that she may remove the rewards. Dr. B is using the ________________ perspective in therapy.

9.   Professor C is teaching a lesson on why it is humans spend one-third of their life sleeping. The lesson focuses on the idea that sleep was an adaptive behavior for humans during the Pleistocene era, that is, sleep allowed humans to conserve energy at a time when it was dangerous and unproductive to be active. Professor C’s lesson is based on the ___________________ perspective.

QUESTION 15

Which line coding technique represents logical “1s” as alternating voltage changes (e.g., 1,1 represented as +v, -v).

QUESTION 16

1. 4B5B differs from line coding techniques in that is ensures that strings of consecutive “1s” and “0s” do not exist prior to being line coded. Select the correct statement(s) regarding 4B5B.

   		a. since 4B5B eliminates long string of logical “1s” and “0s”, simpler line coding techniques such as NRZ can be used.
   		b. since one bit out of every five bits sent is not real information, the data link suffers from a 1/5 or 20% overhead cost (i.e., reduction in data throughput)
   		c. only 80% of the data sent using 4B5B is real information
   		d. all of the above are correct statements

QUESTION 17

1. Analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) describes converting an analog signal into digital data. How is this accomplished?

   		a. analog signals are continuous and therefore can never be converted into a digital signal
   		b. analog signals must undergo a line coding process
   		c. analog signals mush be sampled and quantized
   		d. analog signals are modulated onto digital carriers

QUESTION 18

1. You want to capture a live music concert and covert it into digital format for transmission. The human ear has a frequency bandwidth of approximately 20,000 Hz. Select the best sampling rate and bit depth.  (hint: use Nyquist and a bit-depth of 16)

   		a. fs=40,000 samples/s, Bit depth = 1 bit per sample
   		b. fs=40,000 samples/s, Bit depth = 16 bit per sample
   		c. fs=10,000 samples/s, Bit depth = 16 bit per sample
   		d. fs=20,000 samples/s, Bit depth = 1 bit per sample

QUESTION 19

When digitizing an analog signal, quantization errors will always be present regardless of bit-depth used.

True

False

QUESTION 20

What happens during an analog-to-digital conversion process, if you fail to follow the Nyquist formula?

QUESTION 21

You digitize an analog signal that has a frequency bandwidth of 8kHz, using a bit depth of 4. What data rate must be supported?