Consumers vs. Payers: Who Gets the Most Value?

To prepare for this discussion, use your state’s health insurance exchange website or the Massachusetts Health Connectorwebsite and simulate purchasing health insurance coverage for yourself and/or family.
Initial Post
Submit an initial post that includes the following:
Your experience of evaluating the state exchange’s health insurance options and how you decided what option is best for you and your family.
In addition to evaluating the state exchange’s health insurance options, provide a brief description of the exchange site you visited to help your peers understand your user experience.
Include the health exchange website that you used.
Incorporating choice architecture and behavioral economics, explain why the health insurance offerings are or are not of value to you. Include your thinking on key elements of health care services: provider access and selection, drug coverage, and hospital care.
Your initial post should be 500 to 700 words, reference at least two scholarly resources, and use APA formatting for citations and references.
Note: Your initial post must also be submitted as a Word document into the Assignment (For Initial Post Word Document Only).

Business Fundamentals 4

Sometimes understanding differences in employees’ personalities helps managers understand how to motivate them. Find out about your personality by going to the Human Metrics website and take the Jung Typology Test (based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Myers-Briggs’s approaches to typology). (Disclaimer: The test, like all other personality tests, is only a rough and preliminary indicator of personality.)
a. After you identify your personality type, read the corresponding personality portrait. How well or how poorly does the identified personality type fit?
b. Sometimes a personality test does not accurately identify your personality, but it may give you a place to start looking for a portrait that fits. After you have read the portraits on the website, ask a good friend or relative which one best describes you.
c. The personality type you identified in the instrument above clearly has strengths associated with it that will be useful to you as a business manager and leader. Conversely, discuss some of the ways in which you might “overdo” some of these strengths in a way that might make you less effective. (For example, a very nurturing person might let others take advantage of them or a very directive person might become overly dictatorial).
Visit the AFL-CIO website and find information about why workers join unions and what the benefits have been.
a. What percentage of workers in your state are members of a union? If it is higher or lower than the national average, explain why unions do or do not have strength in your state.
b. Explain how union membership has affected minorities, women, older workers, and part-time workers.
c. Compare and contrast the positions on labor issues found on the AFL-CIO website the same key issues on websites such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Imagine you must fire an employee. What effect might the dismissal have on remaining employees? Explain how you would tell the employee and your other subordinates.
If a company provides employer-paid child care services to workers with children, should those who don’t have children or don’t need childcare services be paid extra? Explain your position and provide supporting evidence.

7-1 Final Project: Case Study

A detailed foundational knowledge of logistics management is essential to a successful logistics career. Companies want employees to be able to assess existing processes and practices, but also to improve these processes to cut costs and meet deadlines. Your assessment for this course is a report or presentation with detailed speaker notes or a recording using a tool such as Jing, detailing your analysis and including foundational recommendations for an existing company’s logistics framework. This report will focus on one organization and will be broken up into several sections to give attention to the key areas of logistics management. Throughout this course, you will have the opportunity to receive feedback from your instructor to help you achieve a successful final submission of your evaluation report.
The project is supported by a milestone, consisting of 16 questions directly related to each critical element of your final case study submission. This milestone will be submitted in Module Five. The final submission will occur in Module Seven.
In this assignment you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

 Calculate costs and production needs based on analysis of organizational logistic needs assessments and customerrequirements

 Identify company logistics, capacity planning, and resource needs by applying foundational qualitative and quantitative analysis methods

 Propose foundational methods for integrating logistic delivery systems into a cohesive, lean delivery system to satisfy customer demand at least cost

 Analyze variable demand cycles, carrying costs, customer preferences, and just-in-time principles for successful inventory management

 Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of physical distribution systems for receiving, storing, and shipping raw goods and finished products

Research the judicial selection process of your state. Explore the qualifications and steps needed to select judges for the different kinds of courts (Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, Bankruptcy Appellate Panels, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, and Article I Courts) within your state.

Week 4 Discussion
Overall Rating:
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Research the judicial selection process of your state. Explore the qualifications and steps needed to select judges for the different kinds of courts (Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, Bankruptcy Appellate Panels, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, and Article I Courts) within your state.
Respond to one classmate’s post, comparing and contrasting the differences between your state and your peer’s state.
You may choose to use the following additional resources to assist you in completing this discussion:
State Court Web Sites.
Comparing State Courts.

Please respond to the following as you consider the psychologist’s role with a victim’s recollection or memories of a certain situation:
How do psychologists deal with repressed memories of child sexual abuse?
What are the techniques used by psychologists in court to recover the memories?
Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.

Accountable Culture Assignment

“9.4 Practices for Making Your Organizational Culture More Accountable”. Read Practice 1 – Practice 7, Pages 116 – 121. You have taken over an organization where there is very low morale. The employees do not respect mid-level leaders and it is difficult to get employees to do what they are supposed to be doing. Please write an essay, APA-styled, a minimum of 3 pages, describing how you would build a change-capable organization and accountable culture.

Practice 1: Begin With a Focus on Results Being Sought
Effective accountability means that there is a clear understanding of the results being sought throughout the entire organization. This requires intense thought and ongoing dialogue about what the organization’s purpose is, and what it is trying to achieve. It starts with a clear understanding of the overall mission of the organization and then cascades down into performance standards expected for each and every individual within that organization. Without asking the question as to “what is wanted” before deciding how to do it, organizational members who act without full knowledge of the results required may work harder but accomplish less.
Ulrich, Zenger, & Smallwood (1999), p. 21.
Accompanying this clarity on results is the clarity of the goals being sought. Sometimes, organizational goals are ambiguous and unenforceable, what some call “resolutions.” While resolutions may sound good, the actions required are often not clear and the results being sought can be up to interpretation. Clear goals, on the other hand, specify what is desired and by when. And when individuals commit to clear goals, positive outcomes emerge.
Heath and Heath (2008).
Practice 2: Assign Responsibility for Results to Everyone in the Organization
If your organization has difficulty assigning responsibility for results, consider responsibility charting. This technique is essentially a matrix with results desired in one column, and individuals in an organizational unit in the other columns. Matrix entries specify who is responsible for what and, if possible, when results are expected. With this relatively simple approach, responsibility and clarity is much more clear, especially if there is a review of the results achieved when compared with the results desired.
But not all responsibility can be assigned in advance. Sometimes individuals volunteer to be accountable for certain results in special circumstances. Stories are an effective tool for eliciting volunteers to become more accountable, particularly when the story involves a previous member of the organization who overcame overwhelming odds to deliver extraordinary results. Success stories are part of every culture, and success stories about accountability help to make the culture more accountable as well as encourage volunteerism.
Wines and Hamilton (2009).
In your attempt to be clear about responsibility, effective communication is essential. Sometimes leaders know exactly what they want, but they don’t communicate clearly what is desired. Sometimes leaders have a vague idea of what is wanted and dialogue needs to be conducted with subordinates to help clarify matters. When the dialogue is open, candid, and informal, clarity ensues and accountability results.
Bossidy and Charan (2002), p. 102.
Practice 3: Leaders Should Demonstrate the Behaviors That Align With the Proposed Change
Culture change starts and gains momentum with changed behavior on the part of the leaders of that organization or organizational unit. Nothing kills a change initiative faster than leaders who espouse certain behaviors and attitudes, but demonstrate different ones. For example, if a leader announces the importance of controlling costs more carefully, but then he or she arranges for a lavish executive retreat or decorates his or her office in excessive ways, the rest of the organization takes notice. Hence, leaders need to exercise care in the behaviors they exhibit.
Bossidy and Charan (2002), p. 105.
In addition, leaders need to be careful as to behaviors that they tolerate. If results are being stressed and their subordinate does not deliver results, then there needs to be demonstrable consequences. This applies to both meeting the numbers and behaving consistently with the organization’s values. Indeed, it has been observed that if a nonperformer gets high enough in the organizational hierarchy and is not held accountable, that person can literally destroy the organization.
Bossidy and Charan (2002), p. 115.
Practice 4: Measure the Right Performance Standards and Do It Rigorously
It is a skill to link desired results and goals with standards and metrics of performance. If a performance standard is done well, achievement of that standard will realize the results being sought. Designing realistic timetables and appropriate performance standards is not easy to do well, and it is particularly difficult for large, complicated projects. And for those change initiatives that have an extended time horizon, intermediate milestones must be set with care. Nonetheless, rigorous standard setting is an essential activity if an accountable culture is being sought.
Osborne (1993).
Clearly, performance measures need to be balanced or else the organization risks becoming unbalanced. Consequently, this suggests that multiple performance standards are required. However, if the performance standards are too numerous, then assessing performance is no longer possible. Overall, focusing on a relatively few, balanced performance standards works best for making the organization more accountable.
Ulrich, Zenger, & Smallwood (1999).
When designing performance standards, it is sometimes helpful to distinguish between ends and means standards. When the strategic goals are established and measureable, then metrics that focus on the end result are most appropriate. However, when the strategic goals are changing and not easily measured, then metrics that focus on the means for bringing about the change are most appropriate. In either case, however, measurements can and should be applied.
Melnyk, Hanson, & Calantone (2010).
Finally, most people assume that utilizing performance standards implies a bureaucratic organization; however, this does not have to be the case. Accountability can be achieved in nonhierarchical organizational structures when it comes from within the employee or is reviewed in nonbureaucratic ways.
Ulrich, Zenger, & Smallwood (1999), p. 97.
Practice 5: Make Sure That Cultural Artifacts Support Accountability
As discussed previously, cultural artifacts are the visible expressions of the underlying values and assumptions that pervade an organization. When changing a culture, changing the visible artifacts makes a conscious and unconscious impression on the organization’s members. There are at least five types of cultural artifacts: (a) normal behavior, (b) myths and sagas, (c) language systems and metaphors, (d) symbols, rituals, and ceremonies, and (e) physical surroundings including interior design and physical equipment.
Shrivastava (1985).
One cultural artifact surrounding accountability is who gets celebrated and who gets ignored. Clearly, celebrating and promoting individuals who deliver results on time and within budget is one way to support movement to more accountable culture. Also, individuals who don’t deliver results on time or within budget need to be privately confronted, coached, and sometimes removed from the organization.
Bossidy and Charan (2002).
The transformation of Continental Airlines is a prime example of how important changing artifacts are to making a culture more accountable. To change behavioral norms that had been associated with low productivity, the leaders instituted a bonus system that rewarded high levels of productivity. In order to align the culture with the new business strategy, the leader’s next act was to reduce the corporate policy manual from 800 pages to just 80 pages and then conduct a ritual where the former manuals were burned by the employees. In addition, the catch phrase “from worst to first” was used to focus employees’ attention on the desired results. Whenever key milestones were achieved, corporate celebrations were arranged. And executives were required to work on holidays so that “we are all in this together” in Continental’s effort to become more accountable and productive. And the repainting of the jets, renovating of the gateways, and purchasing of state-of-the-art information technology all contributed to the turnaround initiative.
Higgins and McAllaster (2004).
Practice 6: Discuss Assumptions Underlying Actions Dealing With Accountability
The fastest but perhaps most challenging way to change an organizational culture is to change the assumptions underlying that culture. Since culture is the “taken-for-granted” way of doing things within an organization, this is not an easy task. However, change-capable organizations are adept at naming the assumptions underlying organizational actions and changing those assumptions when they no longer serve the organization.
Surfacing and debating assumptions is the means by which cultural change is achieved, and paying attention to assumptions around accountability is a key way to make your organization more change capable. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan note,
Debate on assumptions is one of the most critical parts of any operating review—not just the big-picture assumptions but assumptions specifically linked with their effects on the business, segment by segment, item by item. That’s a key part of what’s missing in the standard budget review. You cannot set realistic goals until you’ve debated the assumptions behind them.Bossidy and Charan (2002), p. 236.
Practice 7: Make Sure That the Reward System Focuses on Accountability
A key aspect of accountability means that there are consequences to meeting or not meeting performance standards. This suggests that the reward and recognition system needs to celebrate and reward those who consistently deliver results and develop a reputation for accountability, and it needs to confront and punish those who consistently fail to deliver results.
Kerr and Slocum (2005).
Many organizations do a good job celebrating and recognizing good performance. Very few organizations deal with nonperformers well even though this is a key process for any organization that takes accountability seriously. Most employees like knowing where they stand in terms of performance, and the performance evaluation system is central to making an organization accountable. It is particularly important that the performance evaluation system is based on hitting predefined targets and standards as much as possible. However, care must be exercised in selecting the right standards, not just those that are easiest to measure.
Kerr (1975).
In the absence of rigorously defined standards, performance evaluation becomes more focused on nonperformance criteria. Since each organization is unique, customized reward and recognition systems are becoming the norm for organizations seeking greater accountability.
Heneman, Fisher, & Dixon (2001).
In sum, creating and maintaining a culture of accountability is essential to bring about a change-capable organization. This does not mean that organizations need to measure everything and become more mechanical. If thoughtfully developed, however, measurements and responsibility assignments can aid in organizational learning and adaptability. This dimension, and the previous dimensions discussed, is graphically depicted in Figure 9.1 “The Seventh Dimension of Organizational Capacity for Change: Accountable Culture”.
Figure 9.1 The Seventh Dimension of Organizational Capacity for Change: Accountable Culture

air polution and lung cancer

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that sufficient data was available to link air pollution with lung cancer – Ambient Air Pollution: Health impacts: https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/air-quality-and-health/ambient-air-pollution . What is your understanding of an appropriate governmental role in preventing cancer that can be linked to air pollution? Please share your ideas in a post of at least 150 to 300 words. Include at least two scholarly references (using APA formatting and style) to guide your discussion. Also, using approximately 100 words, comment on at least five other students’ posts, on at least three separate days.

FACTORS AFFECTING FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN TURKEY

I am working on my master thesis and have a draft. Need to just look at supervisor’s feedback and change it like how he wants
ı will share with you one of the master thesis that already written by another student and passed from this supervisor and research questions are related

Deadline: May be one week for changes and another 3 week for comletion of whole thesis

Faith Reflection | Part 2 – How Does the Old Testament Apply to Your Life?

EXAMPLE DRAFT OF THE TEMPLATE OF HOW SHOULD THE PAPER LOOK LIKE WILL BE UPLOADED PLEASE CHECK!!!!

In a 500 word reflection paper, or a 3 minute video or audio recording, conduct a faith check in with yourself.

Over the past few weeks, you have learned more about the message and purpose of the book of Exodus and the Old Testament. As you have interacted with the course materials and resources, have you considered how they apply to your life? Think about the purpose and message of the Bible and how you can use this message to build your own faith.
Reflect on your faith journey so far and your emerging view of the Old Testament. The following questions may help guide your thinking:
How does learning about the Old Testament shape your own faith?
What are you discovering about God and about the process of faith?
What new insights into faith have you gained so far during the course?
What do you still want to learn?
Incorporate 2-3 specific quotes or ideas from course resources in your reflection.
Submit your completed paper before the deadline
Requirements
Citation Requirements: 1-2 authoritative sources
Word Count:
500 (if submitting a reflection paper)
APA Formatting
Plagiarism Submission

problem solving Paper

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Select one problem from the list provided below that you would like to research and investigate.
2) You are required to use no less than five (5) sources. The sources/references used must come from scholarly articles, newspapers, periodicals, etc. I encourage you to use the Richland Campus Library online catalog available to all students. There you will find different databases, govt. resources, journals, newspapers, etc. that will help you complete this paper/course requirement.
3) You are required to answer all of the questions found in the template below using while citing your sources/references in APA or MLA format. Single or double space is acceptable.
4) You must type the questions and answers using a word document, single or double space, 12 as your font size, and times new roman as your font face. You can either write your analysis in question and answer format or essay format. Please note, I prefer question and answer format. That is, type the question and then the answer. Just make sure you cite your sources accordingly and where appropriate within your paper.
5) A bibliography/references page is required and must list all five (or more) sources you used in your analysis. Bibliography page must be in APA or MLA format.
6) Submit your analysis through the link found at the bottom of this page.
7) Failure to follow these instructions will result in an assessed penalty to your grade.
LISTS OF PROBLEMS TO SOLVE:
1) Electoral College (one specific problem)
2) Terrorism (War on Terror and/or one specific problem)
3) Lobbying (one specific problem)
4) Political Action Committees (PACs) (one specific problem)
5) Inequality (one specific problem)
6) Economic Recession/Depression (one specific problem)
7) Civil Rights Act (one specific problem/issue)
8) Bill of Rights (select one specific amendment and/or problem/issue)
9) Public Opinion Polls (one specific problem)
10) Federal Judiciary (one specific problem)

TEMPLATE FOR PROBLEM SOLVING:
1) State your problem as clearly and precisely as you can. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
2) What is your purpose, goal, and need for solving this problem? (Recognize problems as obstacles to reaching your goals, achieving your purpose, or satisfying your need.) Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
3) Study the problem to determine the “kind” of problem you are dealing with. What kind of problem are you trying to solve? What do you have to do to solve it? Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
4) What from your problem do you have control over and what do you have no control over? Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
5) What information do you need to solve the problem? Explain. How can you actively seek the information you need to solve the problem? Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
6) What theory or theories can you formulate concerning this problem? Carefully analyze and interpret your theories and draw reasonable inferences. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
7) Determine your options for action. What can you do in the short term? In the long term? Recognize your limitations in terms of money, time, and power. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
8) Evaluate your options, determining their advantages and disadvantages. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
9) Adopt a strategy. Follow through on it. This may involve direct action or a carefully thought-through wait-and-see approach. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.
10) Evaluate and assess the implications of your action/strategy. Explain your analysis/answer in five (5) or more sentences.