Best Writer

Objective: Understand decentralization and different types of responsibility centers
Mindset: Appreciate the need for various responsibility centers
Organizations with a relatively small scope of operation, either individually-owned or with simpler management structures usually have planning and operating decisions made by the owner or the top manager, referred to as a “centralized” model. As an organization grows in size and complexity, the management of operations usually requires an increasingly “decentralized model.
Decentralized operations involve separate operating segments and delegation of decision-making to managers of the segments in order to execute company-wide business strategies. Such decentralization may involve one or more of the following: geographic area; product line; distribution channel (i.e., retail vs online sales); customer base; and business function.
Growing companies must decentralize out of necessity when businesses increase revenues significantly or product lines diversify, enabling managers to be trained and to deal with suppliers and customer relationships. The creation of separate “responsibility centers” requires segment managers to avoid the risks of cost duplication and failures of communication with other segments while achieving “goal congruence” with senior management. By the use of performance evaluation systems, senior management can establish benchmarks, continue to communicate expectations and reward employee success through bonus incentives and promotions.
Read Chapter 10 in your textbook.
Prepare to discuss decentralization and responsibility centers. Ensure the following points are addressed.
Why do companies decentralize?
What are the advantages of decentralization?
What are the disadvantages of decentralization?
What are the advantages of Performance Evaluation Systems?
What is the need for various responsibility centers?
300 words

Does cell phone use affect the productivity of the employees for H&S Company?

Explain how the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted just as the Framers intended, or does it extend into new areas of the American life?

Discuss questions, concerns, or any enthusiasm you may have regarding one of these areas that are changing due to technological advances.
Support your response by integrating source evidence using SWS-style in-text and source list citations. What effect does this have on our children? It has a big effect. Today we use the internet for everything, even learning in school. Remember those encyclopedias? That was how we used to learn. Even the less fortunate did not have access to those on a regular base. Children in school do reports and research on the internet now instead of in the library. Unless that is the way they can get access to the internet. During the pandemic when all the schools were closed, the only learning was via the internet. Children could not even go to the library to learn. Some cable providers provided free internet access to those that needed it. Then you had some kids that live in areas where there was not any internet access. Learning for kids these days is really hard.
1. Anne Lawrence. 2022. Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy. BUS475 McGraw-Hill Irwin 17th edition textbook.

Melissa Boyd

Week 14 Assignment 1: Aligning Clinical Issues to QSEN
Value: Complete at 100 points/Incomplete at 0 points. This assignment is worth 5% of total grade.
Due: Day 7
Grading Category: Assignments
In this assignment, you will identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes for each of the QSEN graduate competencies that relate to the practice/clinical issue that you identified in Week 14 Discussion 1: Practical/Clinical Issue. Please use the QSEN Competency Table (Word) to identify aspects of each competency and how you incorporated or addressed the knowledge, skills, and attitudes. For this assignment, please have a minimum of three references.
Remember, material and feedback from this assignment will be used in Week 15 Assignment 1: SWOT Analysis.
Review the following two examples for guidance in your own assignment (disregard the number of references in the examples):
Example 1 QSEN Competency Table (PDF)
Example 2 QSEN Competency Table (PDF)

1. If you were meant to come up with a business your own and you choose to do something that has to involve importing, exporting, franchising, licensing or diversifying your business unit to a different market, what would be your steps and processes and how would you make sure that this business would work in a long run?
Identify steps, processes, and approaches you take to choose the market you would like to go to: Various analysis (research) you usually make before deciding which market to go to and why?
The product; which product? And Why? By importing, exporting, franchising, licensing, etc.? How? Any documents involved?
How will you market them and how would you communicate and make it sell to your selected market?
Identify your benefit in entering various markets (tax benefit, etc.) and possible risk that could arise in managing them.

Operational and Safety Challenges of an Open Lunch

Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to get you to think more deeply about important operational challenges that school leaders face: student rights, school district liability, and student safety. As a future school leader, these issues are sure to come up during your tenure.

Directions:

For this assignment, you will write an essay (not including cover or reference page) in which you respond to the scenario below. You must use a minimum of three academic resources (not including your textbook) as you examine strategies to address these operational challenges. Please review the scenario and use the questions at the conclusion to guide your thinking for the response. Be sure to use APA formatting for all portions of this paper. Include a title page, an introduction with a directive thesis, paragraphs that support the thesis, a conclusion, and a reference page.

Scenario:

As in most schools, student safety is a huge concern at Oak Creek High School. Keeping students safe is a major operational responsibility for the school and its leaders. The superintendent has recently spoken to you regarding her concerns about school liability should something happen to students during the long-standing “open lunch” period that allows students to leave campus for lunch and choose where to eat. She would like you to review this situation and wants you to make the decision to keep the lunch as is, or to change it. As the school leader, you do not take this responsibility lightly, and you know that there are many factors to be considered before a decision is made. You decide for transparency’s sake that you should involve others in the decision, so you formed a committee of parents, business owners, community members, teachers, and students.

During your committee meeting, you laid out your concerns. You showed the committee data from other school districts showing that automobile accidents often occur during open lunches because students are in a hurry to get to lunch and then get back to school before being considered late to class. You told the committee that you are afraid someone will be badly hurt. You also shared reports from local citizens that students are smoking, drinking, and possibly abusing drugs during the open lunch and this behavior is unacceptable.

“These are unhealthy and dangerous activities,” you say. “In addition, other area schools have open lunches, and this opens the possibility of students mixing with those of other schools and of possible gang activity during these times.”

You then mention that some parents have reported rumors of sexual activity going on during the lunch hour. Since no one supervises students while away at lunch, some don’t return to school, or some return late. With this data and information you presented to the committee, your mind was mostly made up before the meeting.

This committee, which seemed like a good idea, soon turned into a disordered situation. You faced some passionate resistance to closing lunch and they had valid points to consider.

“I don’t agree with closing lunch at all,” said Will Turner, who operates a deli just a couple of blocks from the school. “Our lunch sales make up a big portion of our daily revenue. Without those sales, we might have to shut down.” Will also mentioned that he was a taxpayer.

“I don’t agree either,” added Madolin Elise, a senior at the school. “Bad behavior occurs only in a minority of students. The rest of us should not be punished, and to stop the off-campus lunch is not fair.”

“This is a right we have,” said Meredith Elaine, another student. “You can’t take that away from us; you are infringing upon our rights and the tradition that we have as students here.”

Several parents spoke against closure, too. They said the break from school was good for students academically as the break gave the students a chance to breathe and come back refreshed to learn.

“Our students need to have some independence,” said one parent. “They need to learn how to make decisions on their own, and an open lunch hour allows them to practice those skills.”

Teachers also said they liked the open hour—it gave them more time to prep since they didn’t have to supervise a lunchroom, hallways, or other areas. The district budget director also opposed the change because the school actually loses money on every student lunch it sells and cannot afford to strain an already tight budget. Finally, the curriculum director spoke against it, saying that if lunch were closed the schedule would have to be reworked to fashion the three different lunch shifts that would be required to feed all of the students in the school’s tiny cafeteria.

Your once-clear decision is now quite foggy with all the new information that you have to consider. However, the decision is yours to make. Will you close lunch and be satisfied that students are safer, or will you continue with the open lunch policy and possibly put the district at a liability risk to avoid making many people angry not to mention limiting the possible rights of students?

As you write your essay, weigh this decision considering the following:

Is the superintendent’s concern over liability justified?
Do business concerns and “fairness” concerns outweigh the concerns for student safety? Why or why not?
Do students have the right to go to lunch off campus? Why or why not?
Now that you have addressed the operational and safety issues if lunch stayed open and a student was badly injured, would the school and your personal liability be expanded due to foreseeability?
Do you see any compromise position here that would allow for some type of open lunch, but protect the district from liability?
What other issues do you see from this scenario? Remember to put yourself in the place of all stakeholders involved.
What would be your decision and the reason why you made such a decision?

Create a formal, current APA formatted paper using the following specifications and outline.
● Body of the paper should be a minimum of 8 pages (this does not include the title page or reference page)
● Current APA style is required.
● Minimum of 10 scholarly peer reviewed journal articles addressing Classical and/or Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning, published within the most recent 5 years, as well as the textbook, and the Bible, must be included in both in-text citations and the reference page.
● Websites are not acceptable sources.
● Do not include direct quotes. Instead, paraphrase information from the scholarly sources (using in-text citations) in order to demonstrate your mastery of each concept.
● Do not use first person. Write in a formal college-level essay style.
● Current APA Level 1 sub-headings must be used throughout the paper. The 6 main sections of the paper will address the following topics:
Historical Development of Each Theory—For each theory, discuss prominent persons and their corresponding historic contributions. Include how each theory developed over time.
Key Concepts of Each Theory—This section will focus on the major points of each theory. How is new information acquired? What are the goals of learning? What is unique about each theory?
Compare and Contrast Research Findings for Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning—This section will compare and contrast findings from the 10 peer-reviewed scholarly research articles. Do not copy your work from the annotated bibliography. Instead, integrate your findings as you compare and contrast research from the textbook and scholarly journal articles.
Learning Implications—This section will discuss the implications for how learning takes place in the classroom. How does Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning work to increase learning? How might a teacher encourage learning using concepts of motivational mechanisms and stimulus control?
Biblical Worldview—Discuss what the Bible says regarding learning behaviors in humans. How would a biblical worldview impact a learner? Use scripture in context and thoroughly explain application of the scripture.
Most Significant Learning—Explain one factor which you found to be the most significant information learned in this course. (Do not use first person.) Substantiate this decision with research support citing scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles and the textbook.
Use the following as an outline for your paper:
Title Page
Introduction
Historical Development
Classical Conditioning
Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning
Key Concepts
Classical Conditioning
Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning
Integration of Research Findings
Education Implications
Biblical Worldview
Most Significant Learning
Conclusion
Reference Page

What does the company expect in the way of inflations, materials shortages, unemployment, and credit availability in the short run, intermediate run, and long run?
What effect will forecasted trends in size, age distribution, and regional distribution of population have on the business?
What major changes are occurring in product and/or process technology? What are generic substitutes that might replace this product?
What laws or regulations are being proposed that may affect marketing and sales strategies? What is happening with pollution control, equal employment opportunity, product safety, advertising, price control, etc., that may be relevant to marketing planning?
What changes in consumer lifestyles and values have an impact on the company’s target markets?
Task Environment
What is happening to market size, growth, geographical distribution, and profits? What are the major market segments and their expected rates of growth?
How do current customers and prospects rate the company and its competitors on reputations, product quality, service, sales force, and price?
How do different classes of customers make their buying decisions? What evolving needs and satisfaction are the buyers in this market seeking?
Who are the major competitors? What are the objectives and strategy of each major competitor? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are the sizes and trends in the market shares?
What are the main trade channels bringing products to customers? What are the growth potentials of the different trade channels?
What trends are occurring among the firm’s suppliers in their dealings with the company?
What is the outlook for the cost and availability of transportation services and warehousing facilities? What trends are occurring in advertising agency services that will affect company relationships? How effective are existing advertising efforts?
B. Marketing Strategy Review (1-3 pages)
Are the corporate objectives and mission clearly stated? Do they lead logically to the marketing objectives?
Are the marketing objectives stated clearly enough to guide marketing planning and subsequent performance measurement? Are the marketing objectives appropriate, given the company’s competitive position, resources, and opportunities? Is the appropriate strategic objective to build, hold, harvest, or terminate this business?
How are marketing resources allocated to product, service, sales force, advertising, promotion, and distribution functions?

C. Review of Organization and Management Structure (2-3 pages)
Review the owners of the organization and parent organization
Review the organizational structure of the parent company, the local organization, and the department where you are assigned. Show organizational charts where possible.
How are marketing responsibilities structured – along functional, product, end user, or territorial lines?
Compare the formal and informal lines of communication – how do they compare with other places you have worked?
Are there good communication and working relations between various departments, e.g. sales and marketing, or engineering and marketing? Are there any problems between marketing and manufacturing? R & D, purchasing, finance, accounting, and legal that need attention (where applicable)?
Is the product management system or other product-market structure in use working effectively? Are the product managers able to plan profits or only sales volume?
Are there any groups that need more training, motivation, supervision, or evaluation?
Would you describe the work environment as pleasant, tough, neutral, or threatening?
Do others make suggestions to their supervisors? In what way?
Do you see any personnel problems in the work environment? If so, explain.
D. Review of Marketing Systems and Operations (2-3 pages)
Is the marketing intelligence system producing accurate, sufficient, and timely information about developments in the marketplace?
Is marketing research being adequately used by company decision makers?
Are sales forecasting and market-potential measurement carried out effectively?
Are sales quotas set on a proper basis?
Are the control procedures (monthly, quarterly, etc.) adequate to ensure that the annual plan objectives are being achieved?
Is provision made to examine and validate periodically marketing costs? How are budgets determined? Who is involved in the planning?
Is the company well organized to gather, generate, and screen new product ideas?
Does the company do adequate concept research and business analysis before investing heavily in a new idea?
Does the company carry out adequate product and market testing before launching a new product?
E. Productivity Analysis (1-2 pages)
What is the profitability of the company’s different products, served markets, territories, and channels of distribution?
What are the budgeted amounts/percentages for each major expense category? Do any marketing activities seem to have excessive costs? Are these costs valid? Can cost-reducing steps be taken?
F. Review of Marketing Functional Areas (3-6 pages)
Products
What are the product line objectives? Are these objectives sound? Is the current product line meeting these objectives?
Are there particular products that should be phased out? Are there any products that are worth adding?
Are any products able to benefit from quality, feature, or style improvements?
Price
What are the pricing objectives, policies, strategies, and procedures? Are prices set on sound cost, demand, and competitive criteria?
Does the company use price promotions effectively?
Distribution
What are the distribution objectives and strategies?
Is there adequate market coverage and service?
How effective are the following channel members: distributors, manufacturers’ reps, brokers, agents, etc.?
Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Publicity
What are the organization’s advertising objectives? Are they sound?
Is the right amount being spent on advertising? How is the budget determined?
Are the ad themes and copy effective? What do consumers and the public think about the advertising?
Are the advertising media well chosen?
Is the sales promotion budget adequate? Is there effective and sufficient use of sales promotion tools, such as samples, coupons, displays, and sales contests?
Is the publicity adequate? Is the public relations staff competent and creative?
Sales Force
What are the organization’s sales force objectives?
Is the sales force large enough to accomplish the company’s objectives?
Is the sales force organized along the proper principle(s) of specialization (territory, market product)? Are there enough (or too many) sales managers to guide the field sales reps?
Does the sales compensation level and structure provide adequate incentive and reward?
Does the sales force show high morale, ability, and effort?
Are the procedures adequate for setting quotas and evaluating performance?
How does the company’s sales force compare to the sales forces of competitors?

This week you’ll be interviewing a mother and father, and then report on your findings.
Interview a mother of an infant or toddler. Make sure to convey to her that the interview will be anonymous, the purpose of the interview is for an assignment in this class, and the names of both child and mother will not be included in any report.
Note: You will also be interviewing a father this week. Both mother and father for these two assignments can be parents to the same or different children.
Interview Guidelines
Use the structured interview yet feel free to add follow-up questions as you wish.
Gender of child: Male, Female, Other
Age of child: Years and Months
How did you prepare for your new baby? Some probes may be: did you read any books, Google any issues, talk to anyone, prepare a space for the baby, buy any clothes for the baby, or make any lifestyle changes for yourself?
When the baby arrived, did you take any time off from work? (Probe for how much, was it paid leave, is there a plan for going back to work)
What were your emotions and feelings during the first two weeks of your baby’s life?
How does the reality of being a mother match your previous expectations of being a mother?
What is the most unexpected thing that has happened to you as a mother so far?
Looking back, would you do anything differently to prepare for motherhood?
Take extensive and detailed notes on the interview responses. These will be used to write your report.
Interview a father of an infant or toddler. Make sure to convey to him that the interview will be anonymous, the purpose of the interview is for an assignment in this class, and the names of both child and father will not be included in any report.
Note: You will also be interviewing a mother this week. Both mother and father for these two assignments can be parents to the same or different children.
Interview Guidelines
Use the structured interview yet feel free to add follow-up questions as you wish.
Gender of child: Male, Female, Other
Age of child: Years and Months
How did you prepare for your new baby? Some probes may be: did you read any books, google any issues, talk to anyone, prepare a space for the baby, buy any clothes for the baby, or make any lifestyle changes for yourself?
When the baby arrived, did you take any time off from work? (Probe for how much, was it paid leave, is there a plan for going back to work)?
What were your emotions and feelings during the first two weeks of your baby’s life?
How does the reality of being a father match your previous expectations of being a father?
What is the most unexpected thing that has happened to you as a father so far?
Looking back, would you do anything differently to prepare for fatherhood?
Take extensive and detailed notes on the interview responses. These will be used to write your report.
Write a Report on Your Findings
Create a report based on your two interviews:
Summarize the mother’s answers to the interview questions.
Summarize the father’s answers to the interview questions.
Compare the two summaries. How did particular answers differ? Did they differ in content? length?
Using all of the above, what do you conclude about the different parental answers?
This report should be NO LESS than 450 words.
in a seprate paragragh Describe your top two takeaways from the two interviews you conducted and your findings. For example, what resonated with you, and why? What surprised you, and why?