Business Studies may be defined as a combination of inter-related business subjects which lead to learning of basic knowledge and skills. It is a course in education that is designed to cover the basic elementary knowledge and skills in organizing business enterprises as well as general office administration.
This week we will be discussing the cause and potential effects of a recent drop in federal worker’s job satisfaction. First, read the article “Survey: Federal worker’s job satisfaction drops.”
For your post, I would like you to touch on the following:
Which aspects of job satisfaction do the workers seem most dissatisfied with? Think of the nine common job satisfaction facets to identify the source(s) of low job satisfaction (Table 9.1 on page 217 in your book).
Explain what job satisfaction antecedents you think are responsible for the current low job satisfaction.
Explain the potential outcomes of the situation using what you know about job satisfaction outcomes. What is likely to occur if the sources of low job satisfaction are not addressed?
Feel free to bring in any other relevant comments or observations you made during your review of the article (e.g., workers level of organizational/occupational commitment etc.).
wo small manufacturing businesses in Chicago, IL operated in direct competition with each other for 20 years. Due to recent changes in economic conditions, the two businesses combined in a horizontal merger. When the businesses merged, 20% of the workforce at each company was let go. The combined employees now work together in a new building.
The transition has not been a smooth one. Much of the remaining workforce is unmotivated to make personal changes to fit into the new business. Many employees are unclear about the direction the new organization is taking and the specific goals that need to be met. Communication among employees is also strained; employees are resisting working with people who were previously their competitors. There is very little information sharing, and there is a lack of cooperation among employees.
You have been called in to assess the situation and make recommendations to help motivate employees as members of the new business. You will deliver a presentation to the management team with your proposal.
Create a 12- to 15-slide presentation with speaker notes that includes introduction and a conclusion slides.
Address the following in your presentation:
Based on the scenario provided, determine two to three reasons the employees are not motivated in the new work environment. These reasons should be founded on concepts covered in the text.
Include your rationale regarding why these two to three reasons are affecting the employees.
Locate at least three articles in the University Library that address your identified reasons. Use information in the articles to create solutions to the business’s problems.
Format any citations in your presentation consistent with APA guidelines.
Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented. This also includes filling your information on the cover page.
Students must mention question number clearly in their answer
Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions.
All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism).
Requirements: 1100-1400
Case Study
Ahmad and his friend, A.G. Pennypacker, have come up with a great idea: they have developed a fluor elastomer liner (a rubber lining) for oil tankers. With this
innovation, they believe they can eliminate most oil spills that result from tanker
accidents. The liner is highly resistant to fluctuations in temperature as well as
physical punctures.
Ahmad wants to set up a company, but is unsure of his options and has come to you
for advice for the type of business entity formation he should select. He has the
following concerns:
1. He does not want his other business concerns being held liable should there be
a lawsuit arising from use/sale of this product.
2. He wants an entity form that will minimize his tax liability.
Based on the entity forms detailed in Chapter 35, select one you feel satisfies his
concerns. Make sure to explain why it is the best for Ahmad and Pennypacker.
Action Items
1. Read the case study above.
2. By the due date, submit your answers to the case study questions. Justify your
in a 4 to 6 page, APA formatted written paper. It must be a strategy paper, meaning it must be about firms. However, there is a great deal of flexibility in the choice of topic.
Step 1
First, choose an industry, based on interest in the industry. Examples of industries range from advertising to zoos, and include digital watches, private jets, diapers, over-the-counter cold and flu formulas, photographic film, automobiles, airlines, football, romance novels, dating services, banana production, or pre-stressed concrete, computer printers, pagers, business schools, used cars sold over the web, movie theaters.
Step 2
Having chosen the industry, you will need a question or issue on which to focus. Such questions could be broad (What strategies are most likely to sustain profitability?) or narrow (Should firm X build a new plant? Where?). Good questions encourage you to think strategically, and thus should include the likely responses of rival firms to any hypothetical actions. Plan to include your question in the topic proposal. A different approach is to choose a story about the behavior of a firm from a newspaper or other source, and research this story. For example, the defense contractor Lockheed-Martin announced a friendly takeover of Northrop-Grumman, and then later dropped the plan after the Department of Justice filed an antitrust complaint. This story contains a dozen potential paper topics. How is the defense industry organized? Why did they want to merge? Why did the DOJ want to block the merger? Choose a topic in which you are interested rather than one that looks easy. Topics that look easy can be treacherous and unpleasant if they are boring.
Step 3
Develop your written response. An important aspect of business communication is the elimination of the extraneous. Supporting exhibits are not counted in the page total. Using a few well-chosen exhibits is a better strategy than many irrelevant exhibits. It is important to provide references for facts you rely on in the analysis. The paper’s focus should be on analysis, with industry description provided to support that analysis. A common mistake is too much description, too little analysis. Do not choose a situation from a case reading from this or another class. Do not revise a paper you wrote for another course as a project without discussing it with me — it would have to be a new paper to be approved. This project is intended for you to perform hands-on strategic analysis. If you were handed a project to analyze a strategic situation by the CEO of your company, what would you hand back?
IMPORTANT!
When you have collected a great deal of information and begun to rough out your topic, run through this list of tools and ensure that you analyzes the most relevant ones to your topic.
Five Forces
Entry barriers, rivalry usually, but not always, the most significant
