Assignemnt:
Part 1
1. How do you feel about having management responsibilities in today's world, characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, and sudden changes or threats from the environment? Describe some specific skills and competencies that you think are important to managers working in such conditions.
2. How can managers improve both efficiency and effectiveness simultaneously? Provide specific examples from work experiences or research.
How would you integrate what you learned in this unit to enhance your effectiveness as a manager?
3. Why are inter-organizational partnerships so important for today's organizations? What elements in the internal and/or external environment might contribute to either an increase or a decrease in inter-organizational collaboration?
From the perspective of your assigned industry, what strategic issues have the potential to create environmental uncertainty?
4. Select the industry in which you work, worked or would like to work, or simply have an interest in. Which companies are the leaders in that particular industry? What practices have made them become a leader? What are the risks those companies face?
5. What are some personal traits that you believe would be essential to organizational leaders today? How are these traits more valuable in some situations than in others? Include all references to resources used to defend your position.
What skills and abilities would a manager need to lead effectively in a virtual environment? Describe any experience working in a virtual environment or an interview with someone who works in that environment.
Discuss the challenges of working in a virtual environment and how an effective manager could address these challenges.
7. How does HR play a strategic role in driving organizational performance? Consider strategies such as recruiting, training, performance management, compensation, etc. Debate how some employees see HR as an administrative role versus a value-added function to the organization?
Many managers wear HR hats. As a non-HR manager, how would you be able to utilize core HR strategies in your role? Provide personal examples if possible.
How would you see your role growing in an organization to include HR strategies?
8. Psychologists have identified multiple pathways to happiness including pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Why is it the manager's responsibility to help people find these elements in their work? How would you personally achieve this?
Part 2
1. Some organizations are disciplined in performing job analysis and maintaining up-to-date job descriptions while many are not. Why might this be true? If employed, is there a difference between what you and your employer think about the value of job analysis and job descriptions, and why? If not employed, explain the pros and cons of job analysis and job descriptions.
2. Please read the article on how to avoid being laid-off and share your views on the business appropriateness and fairness of the skills and behaviors recommended. What do theses skills and behaviors have to do with compensation?
de Bonvoisin, A., & Kilcullen, J. (2009, June). How Not to Get Laid Off. Bloomberg Businessweek.
3. Please read the article on common compensation complaints. If you are employed, what are some the most disturbing compensation issues in your organization? If not employed, based on what you've read and experienced which of these complaints would likely upset you the most and why?
Costello, J. (2009, June). Common Employee Compensation Questions and Complaints. Rapid Learning Institute
4. The effectiveness of any compensation system to attract, retain and align employee behavior and performance with the objectives of the enterprise is dependent upon management credibility. If you were advising a CEO on steps he or she could take to ensure confidence and trust in the compensation and benefit program what would you say? Provide specific examples from course and external resources for your suggestions to the CEO.
Please read the article on pay negotiations and share any experiences you may have had in seeking employment or asking for a raise. If you have had no such experiences, using the article please describe how you would prepare yourself to ask an employer for a pay raise
Zupek, R. (2008, July). 8 Salary-talk Traps to Avoid. Career Builder.
5. If you were the CEO of a company, what would you do to your compensation and benefits plan to make it effective in aligning employee behavior and performance with the needs of the enterprise? Additionally, please read the article in the "Readings and Resources" section above on performance evaluation and share your views - pro and con - on eliminating such reviews.
6. Do you agree that employees tend to undervalue or take their employee benefits for granted and why or why not? From your readings and your experience, how might an employer effectively increase the perceived value employees place on their employee benefits package?
7. Please read the articles on executive compensation and take a position on whether U.S. senior executives are overpaid or not, and briefly present your case. Provide examples from the course or external sources to support your position.
• O'Connell, P. (2010, March). Executive compensation and public outrage. Bloomberg Businessweek.
• Miller, S. (2013, July). Most CEO's are not overpaid, study suggests. Society of Human Resources Management.
8. Please watch the video on equal pay and share your views on whether we have an equal pay problem in the U.S. and why or why not? Have you or anyone close to you ever experienced gender pay inequality on the job? If yes, please explain.
https://www.bloomberg.com/video/president-obama-s-play-for-equal-pay-D5wWdmyoQC~x91yprYlYJg.html
How a company pays its employees speaks volumes about what's important to the company and how it values its human resources. Using resources from this class and your own experiences, explain what compensation can communicate and why "pay messages" matter?