Category: Management homework help

Business Ethics Week3: Chapter 3
Students must answer the Ethical Question and include the following:
Include an ethical theory to support your answer
Include vocabulary from the chapter in your answer
Must respond to one student’s discussion post answer to this question
Ethical Question:
When laying off loyal workers to save the business, is it better to be an egoist, utilitarianist, or altruist as the CEO? Explain your answer. (200-300 words)
Uploaded textbook (chapter 3, pgs. (102-151) if needed 

 In your discussion post, address the following:
Choose one of the following groups and use Porter’s Five Forces to analyze the pressures on profits for your chosen group’s firms.
Group 1: Firms in the retail sector (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Sears, Macy’s).
Group 2: Firms in the wireless services industry (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, Sprint/T-Mobile; focus on telecommunication services, not on the sale of phones).
For each group determine and explain whether the group is monopolistic competitive or an oligopoly. Be specific in which market structures the firms operate.
Choose one of the firms from one group.
Using Porter’s analysis, what are the threats to profitability faced by the firm?

 Answer all FOUR parts from Section A, ONE question from Section B and ONE  question from Section C. All sections carry equal marks. All sources used, except for lecture materials, should be cited and referenced  in a reference list (references do not count in the word limit).  Lecture materials, if used, should not be cut and pasted but should be  rewritten or redrawn.  Any diagrams, figures or illustrations used from other sources should be  referenced.  ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Formula Sheet Table Standard Normal Distribution SECTION A 1. Answer all four parts of this question. Use diagrams to illustrate your answers  where appropriate. There is no word limit for parts (a) and (b). The word limit  for parts (c) and (d) is 250 words each. Do not copy text or diagrams from books,  articles or the lecture materials. Rephrase using your own words. (a) A high-tech manufacturing company produces advanced smartphones. The  smartphone is a complex product with various components and subassemblies.  The lead times for each component and subassembly are as follows: Case and Housing: 6 weeks Lithium-ion Battery: 2 weeks Display Screen: 3 weeks Printed Circuit Board (PCB): 3 weeks Microprocessor: 4 weeks Charger and Accessories: 2 weeks Camera Module: 2 weeks The company plans to produce 5,000 smartphones over the next 12 weeks. The  bill of materials (BOM) for the smartphone is highly detailed, with multiple levels  of components and subassemblies. Three individual subassemblies are required  to produce the final product smartphone. The screen assembly takes 2 weeks  and includes one display screen and four microprocessors. The battery assembly  takes one week and requires one lithium-ion battery. The camera assembly takes  3 weeks and includes two camera modules. The main assembly of the  smartphone takes one week and includes the three subassemblies above and one  printed circuit board, two case and housing units, and one unit of charger and  accessories. Draw the product structure diagram of the smartphone with lead  times and indicate very briefly why this provides vital information for MRP  calculations. [25%] (b) A local bicycle company stocks repair kits in its warehouse. The monthly demand  for repair kits follows a normal distribution with an expected demand of 180 units  and a standard deviation of 40 units. The holding cost of each repair kit is £4 per  unit per month. The cost of placing an order is £250. Procurement lead time is  1.5 months. The company implements an (R,Q) inventory management policy.  The management wants to achieve a service level such that the probability of not  stocking out during the lead time is 0.97. Calculate the reorder quantity and  reorder point for repair kits for this company. [25%] (c) Why are flow shops generally easier to plan and manage than job shops? Provide  an example of each to illustrate your answer [25%] (d) A food company has three main processing stages – mixing, baking, and  packaging. The company makes many different products and employs many  people for the mixing, baking, and packaging operations. It is experiencing  problems with its capacity management. Explain very briefly to the company how  it should estimate its effective capacity for the next three months and what  factors it should consider in doing so. [25%] Turn Over 3 BUSI4496-E1 BUSI4496-E1 SECTION B Answer EITHER Question 2 OR Question 3. There is no word limit for Section B  questions. Excel screenshots are allowed but make sure that you explain how everything  is calculated. 2. Trent Homes is a furniture retailer. The quarterly sales in hundred units of  furniture for the last three years are given in the table below: Year Quarter Sales 1 1 30 2 42 3 48 4 34 2 5 43 6 65 7 61 8 47 3 9 50 10 80 11 85 12 62 (a) By inspecting the sales data of the last three years, briefly comment on the  suitability or not of applying simple moving average and exponential smoothing  methods to forecast this time series. [20%]   (b) Trent Homes uses Holt’s method for forecasting its quarterly sales. Calculate  the one-step ahead forecasts for quarters 6 to 10 using the following parameter  values: S4 = 35 and G4 = 6 (in units of a hundred) α = 0.3 and β = 0.1. Show  your calculations. [40%] (c) Compute the MAD and MAPE based on the forecasts and sales data in quarters  6 to 10. Show your calculations. [20%]   (d) Calculate the sales forecast for quarter 13 at the end of quarter 10. Show your  calculations. [10%] (e) Comment on why the forecast you obtained in part (d) might be inaccurate  and suggest a possible way to improve it (no calculations are needed).   [10%]  Turn Over 4 BUSI4496-E1 BUSI4496-E1 3. A luxury bag manufacturer has two major bag designs D1 and D2. The predicted  monthly demand for D1 in 2025 is shown in the table below. The demand for D2 is  expected to exceed the demand for D1 by 20% in January, March, May and November.  However, D2 demand is expected to be 60% of D1 demand in April, August, September,  and December, and 70% of D1 demand in February, June, July, and October. One D1  bag takes 1.5 labour hours to make, while a D2 bag takes 2 labour hours to make. The  manufacturer currently has 50 workers in their factory and each worker works 8 hours  per day. The number of days per month for 2025 is as follows: 21, 19, 22, 24, 21, 23, 22, 24, 23, 20, 23, 20.  The initial inventory available at the beginning of January 2025 for D1 is 300 and for  D2 is 250. The ending inventory requirements for D1 is 400 and for D2 is 500 by the  end of December 2025. The cost of hiring and training a new worker is £800, and the  cost to lay off one worker is £1000. The manufacturer estimates a cost of £2.4 to store  each product for a month. Month Forecasted demand (D1) Month Forecasted demand (D1) January 2000 July 4600 February 3200 August 3000 March 2700 September 2700 April 4100 October 2000 May 2500 November 3300 June 3400 December 3100 (a) Describe the aggregate unit of production in aggregate planning and define  the most appropriate aggregate unit of production to use in this problem.  [10%] (b) Using the minimum constant workforce strategy, develop a spreadsheet to  find an aggregate plan and determine the total cost of this plan. Explain your  approach. [35%] (c) Using the zero-inventory strategy, develop a spreadsheet to find a plan that  hires and fires workers monthly in order to minimize inventory costs, and  determine the total cost of this plan. Explain your approach. [35%]  (d) The manufacturer needs to plan five days of factory closure for essential  maintenance. The manufacturer can do this maintenance in February or  October. Using the minimum constant workforce strategy in (b), which month  would be best for maintenance? Explain your approach. [20%] Turn Over 5 BUSI4496-E1 BUSI4496-E1 SECTION C Answer EITHER Question 4 OR Question 5. The total word limit for Section C  questions is 1000 words. 4. Company A builds large-scale refrigeration systems for food and pharmaceutical  companies around the world. Most of the systems it builds are high cost and must  be designed and manufactured to meet the specific refrigeration requirements of  the customer including fitting into the customer’s existing premises. Company B  manufactures sofas, armchairs and three-piece suites in many design variants,  colours, and material types. These are sold through many retail outlets in the UK.  Company C is a high-volume producer mainly of flavoured milk drinks in different  sizes and a range of flavours, which are sold in all the major UK supermarkets.  It also produces a range of energy-enhancing flavoured specialist drinks made in  smaller volumes for specialist health food stores.  All three companies have their main production facilities in Nottingham. (a) Advise companies A, B and C on whether they should use a Make-to-Stock  (MTS), Assemble-to-Order (ATO), Make-to-Order (MTO), or Engineer-to-Order  (ETO) approach or some combination of these to meet their orders and manage  their operations. In your answer, use the information given above but also note  any assumptions you make and what other information you might seek from each  company. [75%] (Word limit: 750 words) (b) How will the Customer Order Decoupling Point (CODP) differ for these three  companies? Illustrate this with a diagram you draw yourself for each of the three  companies. [25%] (Word limit: 250 words) 5. Speciality Materials UK produces many different specialist material products and  is experiencing very high demand for its products. It needs to ensure that it  produces the maximum volume of products possible from its Nottingham  production site to meet the high demand. All its products go through specific preprocessing stages and are then baked in a large industrial oven for a period of  time. The pre-processing stages and processing times depend on the recipe for  that product. Pre-mixed products do not deteriorate – they can wait for any length  of time until the oven is available. A small proportion of its products need a  further processing stage to apply specialist coatings.  The company has conducted an analysis which has shown that its products can  take one of five pre-processing routes before baking in the oven (e.g., A-B, C-D,  A-C-D, etc) as illustrated in the Figure below. Products may take the same route  but require different times in pre-processing, in the oven, and in coating,  depending on the product recipe. The company has just one machine at each  processing stage and only one oven. Although only a small proportion of products  require coating after baking, coated products generate a very high profit margin. Turn Over 6 BUSI4496-E1 BUSI4496-E1 The company has analysed the demand for its products over the previous 12  months and its future demand forecasts. The major capacity constraint it has is  the baking oven. The analysis has shown that the oven has insufficient capacity  to meet all the forecast demand. Speciality Materials UK Processing Routes (a) Advise Speciality Materials UK how to apply a Theory of Constraints (TOC)  approach using Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) principles to maximise throughput from  its Nottingham production facility to meet demand. [80%] (Word limit: 800 words) (b) Speciality Materials UK is also experiencing very erratic demand (i.e.,  sometimes very high, then very low or no demand) for its highly profitable coated  products, which are purchased by some of its customers for specific applications.  It is losing orders because it cannot supply quickly enough for these customers.  Advise Speciality Materials UK on how it should work with these customers to  ensure demand for coated products is more stable. [20%] (Word limit: 200 words) 

Explain your understanding of each of the negotiation elements (perception, cognition, emotion and communication).
Provide a comparative analysis of each stakeholder’s decision, incorporating the negotiation elements.
Apply each negotiation element to the video.
Explain what you would have done.
Explain why you would have done that.
Do not exceed 2 paragraphs per instruction.
You will only be graded on:
Your understanding of the negotiation elements.
Your application of the theory learnt in the lectures.
Your understanding and application of the decisions, based on the example/situation presented.

 Assign,ent content
Imagine you are a compliance officer, and you have been informed of a situation that may constitute a breach of the Anti-Kickback Statute. One of the nursing homes in your chain has made a deal with a mobile X-ray company to provide services. The contract states that the nursing home “will not be charged for any of the services to Medicare Part A patients if the nursing home agrees to refer all their Medicare Part B patients to the same company for mobile X-rays. The X-ray company can then charge Medicare directly for the Part B services.” 
The executive leadership has asked you to review and determine whether this contract is ethical and complies with the Anti-Kickback Statute.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper discussing what steps need to be taken to explore the situation and conduct an internal investigation.
Complete the following in your paper:
Determine 4 types of evidence you want to collect and evaluate how they’ll be useful to your investigation.
Identify 3 stakeholders who would be relevant to the interview. 
Create 3 questions that are pertinent to each of the stakeholders identified above. 
Determine if the incident will need to be externally disclosed and evaluate 3 reasons that helped you come to that conclusion. 
Write a preliminary opinion to executive leadership that evaluates whether this practice is compliant and ethical. 
Cite properly cited in-text citations within the narrative of the paper and on the reference page reputable references in APA format to support your assignment (e.g., trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, or other sources of similar quality). 
Format your citations according to APA guidelines.

 
Similar to your personal bio when you applied to Rutgers (personal statement), HW1 is for you to introduce yourself to me (using notepad-PC user, TextEdit-Mac user), or if everything failed, use WORD file or even google doc.
For PC users, go through notepad, type the html code similar to the demo I showed in class, then click File, Save-As, then change the type from *.txt to All file, and name the file HW1.html. The way you submit the files is through the Canvas assignment.  Also submit 2 or more picture files of anything you care to share with me (e.g your picture, your pet’s picture, places you visited, or places you would like to visit.
On Files folder, I posted the thing we discussed today related to HTML and that six basic tags will be on the test (e.g. , …etc).
The sample codes we did in class can be found on the Files folder, HW1 HTML Sample Code sub-folder.
Here is the link for HW1 demo for your reference.
https://youtu.be/1lT0_5fKpboLinks to an external site.
You have the sample code to use that I mentioned in class on Canvas, Files, HTML sample code.
You need a PC to edit the HW1.HTML file after you download the file.
The way you download the sample file is go to Canvas, Files, HTML Sample code directory, then right click on HW1.HTML, then click save link as, and select a directory that you like.  Then after you have downloaded the file, right click on HW1.html on your hard drive, and select Open With, then select Notepad

Research interview skills and find an article, video, or hiring tool related to this topic, from The Wall Street Journalor another reputable source. Here are a few other useful links to get you started:  LinkedIn BusinessLinks to an external site.;  HR Digest MagazineLinks to an external site.;  The Balance CareersLinks to an external site.. 
Provide a link to the online item that you found and discuss it, using the prompts below:
Briefly describe the ideas in the article or video, or the function of the hiring tool
Based on your research, what are two best practices you would apply to improve your interview skills as a hiring manager?
Based on your research, what are two best practices you would apply to perform better as a candidate in a job interview?
Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.​

Discussion Forum Week 3Assigned Readings: Chapter 4: Organizational Capability: Structure, Culture, and RolesChapter 5: Leading and Managing Project TeamsChapter 6: Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Planning For Week 3 Discussion Forum, you will discuss your understanding of the readings from Kloppenborg, et al (2023) completed for Weeks 4, 5 and 6. You will then think of three questions you’d like to ask other students and add these to the end of your thread (after the Reference section). The questions should be taken from Chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the required course material (Kloppenborg, et al 2023) Finally, go to two (2) other students’ threads and post comments, answering at least one of their questions. Provide Continuing Discussion by responding to another student’s response. The Continuing Discussion to the response to a response not a third response to an Initial Post. You must do the following:1) Create a new thread and ensure your initial post is properly formatted.  2) Draft a first section (200-250 words) answering, with supporting and properly cited source material, the following questions (Do not quote any of the source material, you must explain in your own words but properly citing material found in the assigned sources):
Describe how a strong (project) matrix is different from a weak (functional) matrix.
List advantages and disadvantages of functional, projectized and matrix forms of organization.
3) Draft a second section (200-250 words) explaining, with supporting source material, the following questions (Do not quote any of the source material, you must explain in your own words but properly citing material found in the assigned sources):
During all five stages of team development, it is important that the project manager keep in mind the needs of which three groups?
Why might it be helpful to bring out the charter when people are arguing over a decision?
4) Draft a third section (200-250 words) answering, with supporting and properly cited source material, the following questions (Do not quote any of the source material, you must explain in your own words but properly citing material found in the assigned sources):
What is the difference between an internal and external stakeholder? What is the difference between a key and secondary stakeholder?
Name three criteria you should consider when prioritizing stakeholder? Why?
5) Provide three (3) questions that you would like to ask other classmates in relation to the weekly reading material. These need to be specific questions based on weekly reading material identified above. Do not just ask general questions; be specific.

Using your operational budget as a guide, conduct a budget analysis and determine three potential areas or aspects of your business that could receive cuts to reduce spending. These cuts may be broad (e.g., an overall staff reduction of X%) or targeted (e.g., switching from expensive oak to much cheaper pine for the production of skateboards). 
You must identify three potential cuts that can be made. There are almost always multiple opportunities for budget cuts in any organization.
For inspiration, research recent spending cuts in your market sector. What are other companies cutting spending for? Why?
Using the information from your budget analysis, generate three separate budgets that account for these proposed cuts. Which saves the most money? Which makes the most sense for your business?
Gather all three budgets into a single document for submission.
Be prepared to explain and support your decisions in class or in the Budget Analysis Discussion Board. 

 
Read “Case 12: Twitter, Inc. in 2020” in your Connect textbook.
Write a maximum of 700-word APA formatted paper response that addresses the following questions:
What factors contributed to the loss of confidence in X (formerly Twitter)?
Do the actions taken to date present a strategy that would improve consumer trust? Why or why not?
Consider X’s competitors. How does the internal environment compare to the internal environment of one of X’s competitors? Based on this analysis, what is the probability that the strategic moves implemented by X would lead to a sustainable competitive advantage? Explain.
Based on the information presented in this case study, what kind of business strategy would you suggest to help X achieve a competitive advantage?