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.
When consumers make a purchase, they progress through a series of behaviors. The consumer decision making process describes those behaviors and the activities that take place at each stage. In order to increase sales, marketers are looking at the five stages and trying to find ways to influence the consumers as they progress through the CDM process. The internet is the most recent tool that marketers are using to influence consumers. Discuss the impact of the internet on the five stages. What happens differently, or how does the internet use these processes to sell more efficiently? Be sure to include consumer attitudes in your discussion.
The capacity to write coherent project about a case study or an actual research about ethics
Assignment Instructions:
General Motors’ Failure to Consider Stakeholders
General Motors (GM) has struggled with its brands and its image. Over the years, it has jettisoned some of its once-popular brands, including Oldsmobile and Pontiac, sold many others, and climbed back from a 2009 bankruptcy and reorganization. The automaker was hiding an even bigger problem, however: The ignition switch in many of its cars was prone to malfunction, causing injury and even death. The faulty switches caused 124 deaths and 273 injuries, and GM was finally brought to federal court. In 2014, the company reached a settlement for $900 million and recalled 2.6 million cars.
The case exemplifies the tension between the concept that “the only goal of business is to profit, so the only obligation that the businessperson has is to maximize profit for the owner or the stockholders” on one hand, and the ethical obligations a company owes to its other stakeholders on the other. GM’s failure to consider its stakeholders and consumers when choosing not to report the potential for malfunction of the ignition switches led to an ethical breakdown in its operations and cost the company and its customers dearly. In addition, by treating customers as only a means toward an end, the company turned its back on a generation of loyal buyers.
Questions
Read the above Case Study and answer the following Questions:
What virtues and values shared by its long-time customers did General Motors betray by failing to disclose an inherent danger built into its cars? (Not less than 600 words) 2.5-Marks
How do you think that betrayal affected the company’s brand and the way car buyers felt about the firm? How might it have affected its shareholders’ views of GM? (Not less than 600 words) 2.5-Marks
Generally, traditional pay structures involve annual salary or hourly rates with raises based on seniority or merit. This week, you review some alternative approaches, including incentive pay and person-focused pay. Your assessment of incentive-based pay includes individual incentive plans, group incentive plans, and company-wide incentive plans.
Although incentive-based pay is linked to performance, person-focused plans focus on competencies. Martocchio (2020) states that “a competency refers to an individual’s capability to orchestrate and apply combinations of knowledge and skills consistently over time to perform work successfully in the required work situations” (p. 111).
Today your manager, Megan, calls you in for a progress report and suggests you research incentive-based pay and person-focused plans. You explain that you are taking a strategic approach and that a total rewards plan is not a “one size fits all” concept. Your assure her your analysis will include the positives and negatives of each approach, as well as recommendations for evaluation, in the creation of the final proposal.
References
Martocchio, J. J. (2020). Strategic compensation: A human resource management approach (10th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.
Does incentive pay work? Provide your analysis as you respond to the following:
Provide at least two examples (types of jobs) where individual incentive might be appropriate.
Provide at least two examples (types of jobs) where group incentive might be appropriate.
Your initial post should be succinct, of at least 150 words, and demonstrate critical analysis and precision in writing. Evaluate the week’s materials and reference relevant trade publications and scholarly literature.
Create a brief slide presentation, with graphics, and preferably your voice presenting, that analyzes the tools and strategies that leaders can use to build trust and collaboration, and explains why you believe storytelling is one effective tool for you to use to lead your team.
The Ariel Group explains that a story needs to follow a basic four-step format that gently leads the audience into the story, through the story, and connecting the story:
Use this format, based on page 9 of the Ariel group resource, to create six slides (including cover page and references):
Slide 1. Cover slide with title and your name, and a graphic for interest (be sure to credit graphic artist in the reference slide).
Slide 2. Introduce the subject matter or business content, much as the introduction to a paper would do.
Conversation example: “I think you’ve been doing a great job heading this initiative despite the hiccups you’ve encountered along the way. I want to make sure you don’t beat yourself up over this too much . . .”
Presentation example: “Today I would like to speak to you about a new marketing strategy for our product . . .”
NASA example: “NASA has a reputation for communication issues among teammates, but our team is going to change all of that.”
Slide 3. Provide an overview of the importance of storytelling. Specifically, analyze at least two tools leaders can use to build trust and relationships, foster collaboration, and help employees feel engaged with their work (storytelling is one of those tools; mention one or two others). Also, explain ways in which leaders use storytelling to build trust and relationships.
Slide 4. Transition into the story. This slide should transition into your story, setting the expectations of the audience of what is to come.
Conversation example: “In fact, back when I was a team leader, I had a similar experience . . .”
Presentation example: “Let me share with you a story to illustrate a vision of how we can work together . . .”
NASA example: “I once worked at another company that had some major communications issues. It wasn’t life or death like here at NASA, but we did have some serious problems in communications that impacted our ability to be effective.”
Slide 5. Tell the Story. This slide should actually tell your story:
Example: “It’s 2012. I’m out on the soccer field with my son when he turns to me and says . . .”
NASA example: “About 10 years ago I was working as a shift leader at a manufacturing facility where safety was supposedly part of the culture, yet we had a frighteningly bad safety record . . .” Continue the story.
Slide 6. Connect the story to a teaching point or subject matter. This slide should bring your story back to the issue at hand.
Personal learning: “What my son said to me reminded me so powerfully that there is always a fresh, new way to look at any challenging situation.”
Message for the group: “Ladies and gentlemen, are we willing to shift our marketing strategy in a whole new direction, to take a risk in the way that my son did? I certainly am.”
NASA example: “In this situation, we learned this and that. Here at NASA, we can do the same thing. We can prove that communications this and that.” Think of this like explaining the moral of the story.
Slide 7. References. Include references here.
Deliverable Format
Presentation. Attach a PowerPoint presentation that has a cover page, five content slides per the above, and a references slide. You must have exactly seven slides—learning to follow established guidelines is important in school and the workplace.
Resources. Note that your slides should not be text heavy. However, you should make ample use of presenter notes. While the presenter notes do not have to be a word-for-word transcript, they should be very close to what you would or do say in your audio. You may optionally use the slide software recording tools to record audio of your slides—you actually telling your story.
Refer to the writing resources in the MBA Program Resources, especially paying attention to the MBA Academic and Professional Document Guidelines, under Writing Skills, for more information.
Evaluation
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:
Competency 2: Apply leadership strengths and behaviors to workplace situations.
Apply storytelling skills to a workplace situation where trust and collaboration are essential.
Competency 3: Recommend evidence-based strategies for leading and collaborating in complex environments.
Analyze the tools leaders can use to build trust and relationships, foster collaboration, and help employees feel engaged with their work.
Explain ways in which leaders use storytelling to build trust and relationships.
Competency 4: Communicate effectively through academic and professional writing.
Develop text using organization, structure, and transitions that demonstrate understanding of the relationship between the main topic and subtopics.
Integrate appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.
Convey clear meaning in text through sound grammar, usage, word choice, and mechanics.
Organizational Behavior: Individual Behavior and Innovation in an Organization.
Questions:
This assignment focuses on the individual behavior and processes that affect innovation in an organization.
Watch the video “IDEO shopping cart project” (see link below) and write a summary of the attributes in the IDEO organization that encourage and enhance innovation in an organization. Make sure you include your own critical thinking on the subject matter. The paper needs to have an introduction and a conclusion section with a clear thesisInstructions
