Minimize Counterproductive Or Deviant Behaviour Management Essay

Minimize Counterproductive Or Deviant Behaviour Management Essay Counterproductive and deviant behaviours can be found all around us, but matter largely in professional fields. When in an organisation, any deviant behaviour is detected; it is an indication toward a serious threat to organisation as well as the staff from different perspectives. In human resources, deviant behaviours of employees and managing them have gained increased attention due to a range of reasons. For the success of an organisation, management of deviant and counterproductive behaviours is very critical. In this essay, the causes behind deviant behaviours, their influence on the employees, the person and organisation as a whole and the ways to manage/ minimise these deviant behaviours will be addressed. Counterproductive behaviours have become a workplace norm and its popularity is rising gradually. It is very obvious that workplace situations vary and therefore, they leave an impact on employees as well. These deviant behaviours by the employees not just harm the organisation but also affect other organisational members (Spector Fox, 2002). Counterproductive Workplace Behaviours are the acts by the members of an organisation, which are against the organisational legitimate interest (Sackett, 2002). These are intentional as well as unintentional behaviours, resulting from different causes and motivations. It has been identified in journal of organisational behaviour (2008) that an estimated 75 per cent of the employees do engage in such deviant harmful behaviours like; unexcused absenteeism, sabotage, theft, and vandalism cooperate (McGurn, 1988; Harper, 1990). Other such behaviours that have been reportedly found are sexual abuse of women (Gruber, 1990), organisational cynicism (Wilkerson, 2002), withholding efforts (Kidwell Bennett, 1993), spreading rumours (Skarlicki and Folger, 1997), physical assault and verbal abuse (Spector and Fox, 2002), lying (Depaulo and Depaulo, 1989), and absenteeism (Johns, 1997). These behaviours violate organisational working standards and can be antisocial (Robinson Bennett, 1995). Also they may affect the overall performance, decision making and even the organisational financials which can be very costly and harmful for the organisations wellbeing. Many researchers have identified a direct link between the personality traits of the employees and the Counterproductive behaviour at workplace (Salgado, 2002; Colbert, Mount, Harter, Witt, and Barrick, 2004; Dalal, 2005; Blickle, Schlegel, Fassbender, and Klein, 2006; Berry, Ones, Sackett, 2007). However, it has also been viewed that many times, even intrinsically honest employees are forced to behave inaptly, if the work environment or management are unjust towards them; or if they have been treated poorly. Managers are also seen to be the ones creating such workplace environment unintentionally where they are basically contributing towards their employees deviant acts (Greenberg, 1997). Therefore only personality is not a sole predictor of deviant workplace behaviour (Robinson and Greenberg, 1998) and many other factors contribute in counterproductive workplace behaviour. The management in turn fires the honest and capable employees so as to diminish these deviant organisational behaviours, but counteractively they need to put in a lot of efforts towards identifying the real causes of these behaviours and should wisely minimise these acts. The focus of this essay throughout the rest of the paragraphs is to critically identify the causes behind counterproductive workplace behaviour, the extent to which these behaviours influence the workplace norm, its overall power and how these behaviours can be minimised. Therefore, in a sequential manner, all of these points will be analysed. Countless factors influence counterproductive behaviour which consists of acts that harm or are intend to harm the organisation or its stakeholders. A vital aspect is to identify the reasons behind that, why employees are involved in these deviant behaviours. There are certain factors that influence counterproductive behaviour, identified by Litzky, Eddleston Kidder (2006), which are under the direct control of manager that may unconsciously force the employees into engaging in deviant behaviours like; unsatisfactory compensation or rewarding structures, unfair employee treatment, negative attitudes, social pressures to conform, job performance ambiguity and violation of employees trust. Competing for financial rewards causes employees to think only for themselves with the belief that nonstandard behaviours are compulsory to get ahead in their career fight (Crossen, 1993; Peterson, 2002). Managers are identified to be often as the main cause behind workplace theft, because many of them ignore such issues in order to conform to the social pressures, and thus encourage other employees to engage in similar deviant behaviours (Greenberg, 1997). These research studies have found that financial rewards are one of the prime reasons behind the counterproductive behaviours of employees. Not only for competing and leaving the colleagues behind, but also in the run of gaining more financial rewards, these employees sometimes do not feel reluctant to take aggressive actions. Deviant behaviours is one such acts that these employees are found to be practicing. Another research study (Fodchuck, 2007) revealed that both the employee characteristics and the workplace environmental aspects are linked with counterproductive behaviour in an organisation. Organisational factors like job design, workplace injustice and perceived stress initiates these behaviours and individual characteristics that helps in triggering CWB consists of self-control, will power, sensation seeking (Marcus and Schuler, 2004), and motives (Rioux and Penner, 2001). All these researchers have argued that these environmental aspects are increasingly linked with the deviant behaviour in the organisation. A management journal, (Robinson OLeary-Kelly, 1998) termed Counterproductive workplace conducts as antisocial behaviour, because these acts are harmful for the organisation. As per this study, the antisocial behaviours of employees are influenced in work groups through social learning and social information processing method. The workgroup largely influence an individual employees antisocial behaviour, and CWB of a workgroup is a significant predictor of the individual employees CWB at work. A study conducted in 2008 (Skarlicki, Barclay Pugh) explain downsizings and layoffs as the major factor behind counterproductive behaviour by the employees because most victims, who lose their jobs, are loyal workers and consider this management decision as an unfair treatment towards them. These employees in turn engage in organisational retaliation as revenge to their wrongdoer. Their negative emotions emerge by bad mouthing about the organisation to the organisational members and others, conveying a strong negative impact of the company. This retaliation is very similar to previously defined antisocial behaviour (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1996), counterproductive behaviour (Fox and Spector, 2005) and organisational deviance (Robinson and Bennett, 1995) thus overlapping with the duskier side of the organisational behaviour theories with potentially negative consequences for the organisation and other individuals. Many times in such situations even the informational justice and supp orting information does not help to be effective in reducing this retaliating behaviour (Dalal, 2005). All of these research studies have discussed that these factors extremely play their role to generate deviant behaviour among employees. Another study by Smithikrai (2008) suggests that personality traits and Counterproductive workplace behaviour have a direct link with each other; however, situational moderators in which counterproductive workplace behaviour takes place can increase the cogency of personality measures in predicting deviant behaviours. Situational factors in relation with personality traits are strong stimulators of counterproductive workplace behaviours. Individual behaviour reflects relevant traits when the situation is week, whereas when the situations are strong then the behaviour of the employees are clear, and they meet the behavioural demand of the situation (Blickle et al, 2006; Robinson Greenberg, 1998; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Therefore situational strength is very much critical in identifying these deviating individual behaviours, and in strong situations the employee performance gets monitored where Counterproductive workplace behaviour is not tolerated (Berry et al, 2007; Greenberg, 1997) . Wilkerson, Evans Davis (2008) conducted a study testing evidence of the co-workers social influence on other employees bad mouthing, organisational cynicism and supervisor assessments of employees organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The study suggests that the badmouthing behaviour of close co-workers largely impacts other co-workers, influencing their similar behaviours, due to the result of social information processing. Further the study advises that there also becomes a possibility of a chain reaction effect, where the organisational cynics are likely to engage other in their bad mouthing behaviour, creating other cynics within the organisation. This results in negative performance outcomes, reduction in management trust and further intentions of engaging in OCB (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). Bad mouthing has found to be one of the critical factors behind generating deviant behaviour. Yet another research by Tepper, Henle, Lambert, Giacalone and Duffy (2008) states that abusive supervision consequences in lower level of employee commitment with its employer, leading to little desire of working with the organisation, lower level of attachment with the organisation resulting to greater deviance against the organisation. This explains that effective employee commitment is estimated to facilitate the relationship between abusive management and organisational deviation. Abusive supervision is yet another costly workplace factor impacting negatively on employees, employer as well as organisational performance (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). Research study by jones (2009) have a different viewpoint, stating that there are different relations among different types of injustice, desire toward revenge and counterproductive work behaviours with ones supervisor and organisation separately. The results identified that counterproductive workplace behaviours related with organisation can be minimised through increase in procedural justice whereas behaviours related to supervisors can be minimised when the supervisor treat their employees fairly, with dignity, and respect as well as provide justifications for decisions that influences them (Litzky et al, 2006; Crossen, 1993). There are many factors identified that influence instigate deviant behaviours by the employees (Peterson, 2002). Of all these factors influencing Counterproductive behaviours every aspect has strong and weak impact over the behaviours, depending on the situation and the individual (Crossen, 1993). Age, cognitive ability, self-control, emotional intelligence and personality all correlates and create strong or weak affect over these behaviours by the employees (Fodchuk, 2007). Therefor situational moderator and personality mediator helps in increasing or decreasing the power of these behaviours by the employees (Rioux Penner, 2001). Reduction of these deviating behaviours in an organisation begins with recruitment and selection phase of hiring new employees through the use of personality testing, cognitive ability screening, and integrity screening (Marcus Schuler, 2004). But since situational factors emerge out of routinely day to day operations of the organisation including organisational constraints, illegitimate tasking, lack of compensation and rewards, interpersonal conflicts and lack of organisational/management justice thus organisation needs to involve much more into minimising these behaviours (Robinson et al, 1998). Mangers are equally liable and in a better position to control and minimise these behaviours within the organisation (Giacalone Greenberg, 1996). If the outcome is similar by different employees on a particular position, then this can be termed as a warning for the manager to identify his personal behaviour and management ability (Robinson Bennett, 1995). It is the job of manger to create an ethical working environment so that inherently honest employees do not turn their behaviours into negative and counterproductive ones (Skarlicki, et al, 2008). Apart from this building reliance relationships, creating ethical policies and procedures, setting achievable targets, creating effective supervision and monitoring performance ultimately helps in toning down the deviant behaviours of the employees in the organisation (Depaulo Depaulo, 1989; Smithikria, 2008). Similarly one step that the organisation can take into reducing these behaviours can be through enhancing organisational justice, allowing workplace participation of employees, maintaining communication, and paying close attention to identification of signs for interpersonal conflict (Tepper et al, 2008; David, 2008; Spector, 2005). Besides this lay off, employees needed to be financially supported and should be well informed in advance, or given a notice period so that they may not bad mouth the organisation and put its integrity at stake. Making other opportunities available to them after some time period also helps (Wilkerson et al, 2008; Jones, 2009) In the last, combating deviant and counterproductive workplace behaviours can be costly and very much time consuming but organisations are in a much predicted position of minimising these behaviours through identifying the main factors and taking actions in reducing it, which would thus increase the organisational performance, workplace environment and the overall success.

A Marketing Strategy For Morrisons Marketing Essay

A Marketing Strategy For Morrisons Marketing Essay In recent years, several conceptual frameworks have been developed to better understand the processes of strategy formulation, and for such processes, the term strategic marketing is used to describe the decisions taken to develop long-run strategies for survival and growth About Morrisons We are the UKs fourth largest food retailer with  403 stores. Our business is mainly food and grocery the weekly shop. Uniquely we source and process most of the fresh food that we sell though our own manufacturing facilities, giving us close control over provenance and quality; and we have more people preparing more food in store than any other retailer. Every week nine million customers pass through our doors and 124,000 colleagues across the business work hard each day to deliver great service to them. With competitive prices and hundreds of special offers, we are proud to save our customers money every day. Definition of Strategic Marketing Marketing Strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. (Baker Michael 2008) Principles of marketing strategies People Oriented Marketing The purpose of marketing strategies is to create the added advantage of the company. The strategies that are supported to the customer orientation is the most important one because the customer is the king of market. The Cost Of Something Is What You Give Up To Get It. Marketing strategies are planned according to the pricing of their products. Company set their pricing that are supported their products and customer are likely to buy it. Reward System Strategies Strategies are prepared to satisfy the customer and employees. Bonus Cards, loyalty cards are the rewards that organisation gives to their customers just to retain them. Competitive Advantages Marketing strategies are prepared according to the competitive advantage of the competitor. Marker Base Assets Marketing strategies are supported to the brand name, brand image, company name and then cash them to gain advantage. Vision of Morrisons food specialist for everyone Food specialist We really understand food we know where it comes from; we pack it and make it in our factories; we make it in our stores; and we employ craft skills in every store. For everyone Great food which is also: great value; and for every day, not just special days. This vision is supported by our brand values and strategic objectives. Brand value Our brand values are important to delivering our strategy and underpin all our strategic objectives. Fresh, Value and Service are discussed in the right-hand box above. SMART Analysis: SMART is an acronym which tells us that when ever we set any companies objectives they should be ,S =Specific M= Measurable A = Actionable or Achievable R = Realistic T = Time Frame Morrisons strategy Keeping things simple: Our vision to be the Food Specialist for Everyone is now well advanced. Our constant focus on freshness, great value and outstanding service is appealing to more and more people. And were now closer to more customers, having opened 43 new stores last year. Morrisons share of UK grocery market For the financial year 2009/10 the grocery market was worth  £90.2bn, an increase of 4.7%. Morrisons market share continues to increase as we move from National to Nationwide. Morrisons market share(percentage %) 2007 2008 2009 2010 11.9 12.1 12.3 12.6 Morrisons share of grocers UK 2010 (percentage %) A. Morrisons 12.6% B. Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys (combined) 63.5% C. Premium (combined) 5.8% D. Discounters and others (combined) Morrisons market share growth was greater than the total market growth year-on-year and as a result we grew market share. The top four supermarkets combined accounted for around 76% of the market. (Source: Kantar Worldpanel) Market share growth in 2009/10 (Percentage %) SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis in the technique to understand the internal and external analysis of the company that tell companies strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threat of the company. STRENGTH Market share growth in 2009/10 Store estate development Acquisition of co-operative stores Opening of 34 new stores Food specialist Specialist in food Owen supply chain Own distribution channel Morrison form for food Owen packing factories Instore preparation of food Quickest turnaround time between order and delivery Employees education programme (MBA) WEEKNESSES Lack of the customers trust Very less number of stores Less Advertisement Little bit high pricing OPPORTUNITY Home Delivery extension of small stores to cover the more customers start the new business line as Morrisons pharmacy Move into non-food retailing in the UK. Entry into new retail segments, such as drugstores, department stores, speciality units Increase the number of stores to cover the more population areas THREAT Low pricing of competitors Communication is weak High competition Open market for entering new competitors Purchasing of co-operative store are not maintain Morrisons standard Uncertainty will affect the sale and profitability of the company Competitive Analysis Competitive analysis conducted for the comparison of company to the other different companies/ competitors. It tells the company that where their products are and where the other have, they are in the good position are their competitor. Competitive analysis is tells advantages and the weaknesses of the companies over the competitors. Morrisons have strong competition with Tesco, ASDA, and Sainsbury etc. Boston Consulting Group Matrix Star High growth business or products that competing the market where they have competitive advantage/ edge as compare to the competitor. Normally heavy investments are required to exist in the market. Morrison may not fall in this part of the matrix. Cash Cows Business growth is low or product having relative market share. There is normally low business and little investment is required to retain in the market. Good leadership and strategies are required for growth. Morrisons is in this area of matrix. Question mark Business or product have low market share but exist in the high growth market. Businesses in this area are required high investment but they have potential to grow high. Management have to make some growth strategies that Morrison have done and now in the growth position of the market. Dogs Businesses or products have low market share and unattractive market. Business fall in this area may generate profit to come on breakeven point. Pricing strategies There are number of pricing strategies that companies used in according to their purpose that are fit and matched with objectives and goals. The strategies are: Premium Pricing Economy Pricing Penetration Pricing Psychological Pricing Skimming Pricing Captive Product Pricing Product Bundle Pricing Promotional Pricing Geographical Pricing Morrisons are used various pricing strategies from the above mentioned strategies. Economy Pricing Morrisons are using this strategy in their products that are daily use items. All most all the grocery items are under economy pricing scheme. Psychological Pricing Morrisons are also adopting this pricing technique just for psychological impact on the customers. For example 99P Promotional Pricing Morrisons are using this strategy for promotional items. Example: buy 1 get one free or two item 2 pound etc. STP Strategies STP is another type of marketing strategies that companies kept in mind while formulating its marketing strategies. STP stands for S- Segmentation T- Target P- Positioning Segmentation Demographical Geographical Psychological Behavioural Geographical Company divided its area into different parts than these subareas are also divided into regions. Morrisons have divided its UK market into 4 parts that are the states then these are divided into cities and then cities are divided its sides like central, north, east, west, northwest etc. Distribution and channel strategies Morrisons have their own distribution channel that is use to deliver its products to the retail stores for the end use of customers. Fresh foods are taken from own forms than they distribute to the concern factory for packing and finally distribute to the retail stores effective and efficient use of the supply chain management.

The Crucible - fear and suspicion Essays -- Essay on The Crucible

In the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us how fear and suspicion can destroy a community. As the play develops, Miller shows us how fear and suspicion increase and destroy the community. Throughout the play it becomes apparent that the community gets more and more divided as time goes on. In the beginning there were arguments about ownership of land between some of the villagers. As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged. Salem became overrun by the hysteria of witchcraft. Mere suspicion itself was accepted as evidence. As a Satan-fearing community, they could not think of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of evil was to deny the existence of goodness; which was God. In the 17th century a group of Puritans migrated from England to America - the land of dreams - to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. As Arthur Miller tells us in the introduction to Act 1 'no one can really know what their lives were like.' We would never be able to imagine a life with 'no novelists' and 'their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or vain entertainment.' 'They didn't celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer.' They led a very austere and bleak life. The people of Salem - from which the audience derive their "good" and "evil" characters - were superstitious and highly religious, and their Theocratic form of government offered them security and unity. However, this strong religious background also offered the option to use it misguidedly to promote the evil of false accusations. The excessive and blind religious fanaticism... ...n 1947 but a year later in 1958 his conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court. The play is relevant to any society destroyed by fear, suspicion, paranoia and accusation - other societies where something similar has happened include East Germany under communism after World War 2, Afghanistan under the Taliban and China under the Cultural Revolution when the Red Guards would decry people for being bourgeois reactionaries. In conclusion I think that the ideas of fear and suspicion appear throughout the play. Initially the suspicion starts on a small scale but gradually develops and destroys the community. The fear of the devil at the beginning extends and includes fear of others and neighbours but when the court comes into action the community are also afraid of the court. All the fears and suspicion mounts up and the community is thrown into turmoil.

Comparing the Beauty of Poe and Emerson Essay -- comparison compare co

The Beauty of Poe and Emerson      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As stated in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Poetic Principle," a concept of beauty can only be achieved through the use of emotion, an "excitement of the soul," a necessary element to any worthwhile poem (Poe 8). Poe's fascination with the mystery of death and the afterlife are often clearly rooted in his poems and provide a basis for himself and the reader to truly experience his concept of beauty. Although also a believer in portraying beauty through poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson found beauty to be eminent in nature and all things created by the Oversoul. Beauty for Emerson is not an idea or unknown, it is visible all around him.    To Poe beauty can only arise from "excitement of the soul," and such emotion can only be brought upon by feelings of melancholy.    He reiterates the importance of melancholy in The Philosophy of Composition--"Now, never losing sight of the object supremeness, or perfection, at all points, I asked myself--- "Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?" Death --- was the obvious reply. "And when," I said, "is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?" From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious-- "When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world-- and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such a topic are those of a bereaved lover" (Poe 265).    Melancholy and beauty go hand in hand for Poe. If his goal is to bring about the "excitement of the soul," then that can only be achie... ...mself on the beauty of melancholy and the mystery of the afterlife to the point of extreme emotion, while Emerson relayed beauty through the Oversoul. Both revolutionaries of nineteenth century poetry, their works will continue to place a sense of beauty in all who reads them, and live up to the saying: --beauty is in the eye of the beholder.    Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Each and All." The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. Ed. Jay Parini. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. 95-96. ---. "X. Essays. The Poet." The Harvard Classics. <wysiwyg://48/http://bartleby.com/5/110.html>. Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition," The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. II, 1850, pp. 259-270. ---. "The Poetic Principle" (D), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. III, 1850, pp. 1-20. ---. "Annabel Lee." Parini 161-162.

Thanksgiving Dinner :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thanksgiving Dinner   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though it was many years ago, I vividly remember my first Thanksgiving dinner. I was a little kid, no older than the age of seven. I flew in that day from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where we had attended a special ceremony honoring my uncle. As a result of the hectic flight schedule, I did not have the opportunity to eat very much that day, and I was eagerly anticipating the Thanksgiving dinner. We arrived at my grandparent’s house around six thirty in the evening. As soon as I entered the house, the tremendous aroma of all the foods filled the air and my taste buds began salivating in anticipation for the meal. Normally at family meals the food came out in courses, appetizers followed by the entrà ©e. However, this time all the food came out at once. I immediately reached for the turkey and proceeded to take a huge slab of meat for my plate. Coupled with gravy, the turkey seemed irresistible. It was a big piece of dark meat, roasted to perfection. The skin had some sort of spice on it. I don’t recall the name of the spice, but I can tell you that the spice was sharp. Yes sharp, I think that’s the best way to describe it. After my first bite I found myself reaching for the nearest cup of water. However, after I got used to the spice, I began to realize its incredible taste. In less than ten minutes, I proceeded to wolf down this massive chunk of turkey. Feeling the need to fill my now empty plate, I next reached for the Cranberry sauce. I had tasted Cranberry sauce many times before, but I never tasted it with fresh homegrown berries. The taste was absolutely exquisite. It bursted with flavor and possessed a tangy taste I never imagined could come from such a simple cranberry. It was amazing to taste the difference between this and the Cranberry sauce that comes in a can. After consuming several spoonfuls of cranberry sauce my stomach began to feel very full. Being a little kid, I had no choice but to make room for dessert; and what a dessert it was! As soon as the pumpkin pie was removed from the oven, the air was filled with an aroma that can only be described as sensational. I took a look at the delicious homemade pie.

Apple Inc. and Mary Kay Cosmetics

P29 Q1 1. The marketing channel for Mary Kay cosmetics is called a direct selling channel. The company user a sales force of over 1000000 Independent Beauty Consultants around the world. These consultants are not employees of Mary Kay Corporation; they buy cosmetics from the company at a wholesale price and sell to end-users at a retail price. They maintain personal relationships with their end-user consumers and deliver product to them after it is ordered; it is a high-service purchasing relationship from the consumer’s point of view. Consultants thus act as both distributors and retailers. a. To what extent does an Independent Beauty Consultant participate in the eight universal marketing flows? b. How might these flows be shifted, either among the members now in the channel or to different agencies or institutions not presently included? What do you think would be the implications of such shifts? (think about how cosmetics are sold through department stores or through drugstore chains, for example. ) c. Within each of these distribution systems, specify the consumer’s role from a flow-absorption perspective. Contrast this with the consumer’s role when buying cosmetics from a department store or a drugstore chain. P64 Q1,2,3 2. For each of the three scenarios below, categorize the demand for bulk-breaking spatial convenience, waiting/ delivery time, and assortment/ variety as high, medium, or low. In each case, explain your answers. a. A woman in an emerging-market country of Southeast Asia wishes to buy some cosmetics for herself. She has never done so before and is not entirely sure of the occasions on which she will wear the cosmetics. She does not live near a big city. She is too poor to own a car but has a bit of extra money for a small luxury. b. A manufacturer uses a particular industrial chemical in one of its large-scale production processes and needs to buy more of the chemical. The rest of the raw materials for its plant operations are delivered in a just-in-time fashion. c. Before you visit certain parts of the world, you are required to get a yellow fever vaccine. Many travelers let this slip until the last minute, forgetting that it is advisable (or avoiding an unpleasant shot as long as possible). But they definitely realize they need the shot, and they do not want to have to cancel their trip at the last minute because they did not get it. They often find themselves making a long trip to a reginal medical center because trhey did not plan ahead. 3. For the three scenarios in Question 1, describe a marketing channel that would meet the target end-user’s demands for service outputs. 4. Describe three different buying situations with which you are familiar and the SODs of the buyers in each one. Do you think the SODs being supplied are close to those being demanded? Why or why not? P. 103 Q4 5. Explain how the shopping characteristics for the following consumer and industrial goods affect the channels for them: CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRIAL GOODS Bread Laser printer toner cartridges Breakfast cereal Uranium for nuclear power plants Women’s hosiery Cement Refrigerators Medical machinery(e. g. , ultrasound machines) P. 150 Q5 6. Apple, as a computer company, has struggles over the years with the assortment problem. Company-owned Apple stores offered only Apple computers. Although management liked having control of the assortment, customers wanted side-by-side comparisons with other brands, eventually driving Apple to close many of its own stores. Apple also has had difficulty influencing how independent computer outlets stock and display its products. Apple is now using the success of its music downloading systems (iPod and variations) to compose larger assortments-and is reopening company-owned stores. Is this a good idea? What, if anything, would you recommend to Apple as an alternative strategy to improve its products’ coverage and sales? P192(4) 7. A manufacturer is in the habit of offering liberal payment terms to distributors: They can pay anytime within 45days of receipt of the merchandise. The manufacturer currently has a band line of credit to cover accounts receivable and pays an interest rate (prime+1%) on the balance on loan from the bank. One of the manufacturer’s key distributors offers to pay for shipments by immediate bank funds transfer upon receipt of merchandise if the manufacturer will reduce the price by 1%. Does this offer close a gap? If so, what sort (demand side, supply side, what flow)? P238 Q6 8. You are the owner/manager of an auto dealership in Germany selling the Audi line. Your dealership is exclusive to Audi; you have invested heavily to build the dealership; and your contract is such that, if you decide to sell your dealership, Audi has the right to approve or disapprove any buyer you might find. What is the balance of power in your relationship? What sort of working relationship are you likely to have with your supplier? What could your supplier do to ensure you do not become alienated?

Recreation Wellness Essay

Manage Your Health, Inc. (MYH) is a fortune 500 company that provides a variety of health care services across the globe. MYH has more than 20,000 full time employees and more than 5,000 part-time employees. MYH recently updated its strategic plan, and key goals include exploiting new web-based technology to help employees, customers, and suppliers work together to improve the development and delivery of its health care products and services. The performance of the current intranet MYH is not very smooth and has some problem occur likes lack of the information which related of some sports and the employees of MYH not active involve in any sports which organize by the company. This will indirectly makes the employees of the MYH will become not energetic when perform the daily working tasks due to this, this will make the customer lost confidence on MYH because MYH is a health care services across the globe. So, the MYH decide to update the strategic plan. Some ideas have developed for supporting the strategic goal which idea by the information technology department. Approach of the project: Exploiting new web-based technology to improve the development and Delivery of health like giving some information and guideline to the employee what is the project main purpose. Make an easy way to them purpose. Make an easy way to them hope they can understand well. Develop detailed cost estimate and time requirement for the project and report to the project sponsor. Using the prototyping methodology to performs the analysis, design, and Implementation phases concurrently and repeats them until the system completed. Issue a request to obtain software and hardware Have a status review meetings to exchange project information with team members. Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project is the new web-based technology which provides an application on the current intranet to help employees to improve their health. Our project team will initiate the current problem of the intranet and implement the new idea on the new intranet project. We will prepare the business case for the current intranet project which included the introduction of the company, business objective, current situation and problem and critical assumption and constraints. Besides that, analysis of option and recommendation, preliminary project requirements, budget estimate and financial analysis, schedule estimate, potential risks and the exhibits which will assign it into our business case. We will start this project within the duration, nine months which start on January, 2004 until September, 2004. Project charter will be preparing from the initiating phase which include the project title, project start date, project finish date, budget information, project manager and project objectives. All of the criteria will stated down. Besides those criteria, approach, roles and responsibilities, sigh-off and the comments also assign into the project charter to make sure every of the project team members will have their own roles and responsibilities. After initiating the current problem of the current intranet, we will analysis the new system which will implement it into the MYH. In the planning phase, our project manager, Tony will starting to put the jobs and assign it to the project team members and also from other departments. Tony, the project manager of this project would have to develop a survey to solicit input from all employees about this new system and make sure it was very user- friendly. Tony will develop a team contract and stakeholder analysis for this project. Besides that, he will develop a scope statement and will be as specific as possible in describing product characteristics and requirement, as well as the product deliverables. A work breakdown structure (WBS) will develop for this project and the WBS is based on the project charter, scope statement, and other relevant information. Gantt chart and network diagram also will be well prepared for this project. While preceding the planning stage, the resource usage cash flow report will showing the hours each person is assigned to work on each task each week.  Furthermore, the probability/ impact matrix and list of prioritized risks for the project will be included in the project We will submit weekly milestone reports directly to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The milestone repost for the project will base on information in the Gantt chart. An agenda for the project team meeting will develop to work through some of the challenges while facing in executing the project. Update the scope of the project while having some changes in the executing phase. We will develop detailed lists of assumptions and questions that all the project team has related to the new scope of the project. We will decide to outsourcing much of work related to user requirements, user interface design, and collecting information about similar programs offered through the health club chain MYH recently acquired and all similar community- sponsored programs within twenty miles from the company. Updated the Gantt chart and also the project charter and the scope statement last but not least, we will updated the list of prioritized risks while the changes of the scope statement. After the controlling phase, roll out the intranet project for the user and maintaining the system is been required. Final presentation to top management will be require and will updated the project web site so that is includes all final project and product deliverables. Final project report/ Project assessment: The Recreation and Wellness Intranet project is provide an application to improve the employees’ health. The objectives of having this intranet is because a recent study was been found that MYH, Inc. pays 20 percent more than the industry average for employee health care premiums, primarily due to the poor health of its employees. This application will help improve employee health within one year of its rollout so that can negotiate lower premiums, saving about $30/employee/year for the full-time employees over the next four years. The application would include/produce some capabilities like allow employees to register for company- sponsored recreational programs, such as soccer, softball, bowling, jogging, walking, and other sports. Besides that, it allows employees to register for the company-sponsored classes and programs to help them manage their weight, reduce stress, stop smoking, and manage other health-related issues. Track data on employees involvement in these recreational and health management  programs and also offer incentives for people to join the programs and do well in them is a part of the capabilities of this application. The project is a success because as stated above, the sponsor was not too concerned about going over budget as long as the system would have a good payback period and help promote our firm’s image. We have already document some financial and image benefits of the new intranet site. The project management tools we have been use for are the business case, charter, team contract, scope statement, WBS, schedule, cost baseline, status report, final project presentation, final project report, lessons-learned report, and Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Project, html, or PDF format, as appropriate. and any other documents required to manage the project. Thos project management had help us a lots while assigning the whole project by proceeding the system easily and be more systematic so that we can review the information easily. One example of what went right on this project is can help improve employee health to reduce intranet cost by negotiates lower employee health care premiums. When employees have a better health, it can lead to better performance in daily company operation. Beside that, it also can increase employee motivation and loyalty to company and helps to built up healthy image public. One example of what went wrong on this project is the cost of this project was over budget. We did meet our schedule goal, and the final cost for the whole system was about $500,000. We group member can learn by working on this project is getting more experience after this project and improving their skill and problem solving. Project Deliverable, as appropriate: Project management-related deliverables: (business case, charter, team contract, scope statement, WBS, schedule, cost baseline, status reports, final project presentation, final project report, and lessons learned report, etc.) Product-related deliverables: 1. Survey: Survey current consultants and clients to help determine desired content and features for the site. 2. Files for templates: The initial site will include templates for the following items: (business case, charter, etc.) 3. Examples of completed templates: The initial site will include examples of projects that have used templates for the following items: business case, charter, etc. 4. File for tools: The initial site will include information on how to use several project management tools, including, as a minimum, the following: work breakdown structures, critical path analysis, cost estimates, earned value management, etc. Where appropriate sample files will be provided in the application software appropriate for the tool. 5. Example applications of tools: The initial site will include examples of projects that have applied tools for the following items: work breakdown structures, critical path analysis, cost estimates, earned value management, etc. 6. Articles: The initial site will include at least ten useful articles about relevant topics in project management. 7. Links: The initial site will include links along with brief descriptions of the site being linked to for at least twenty useful sites. The links will be categorized into meaningful groupings. 8. Expert database: In order to deliver a â€Å"Feedback† feature, the system must access a database of approved experts, their contact information, etc. 9. Intranet site content: The initial site will include content for the templates and tools section, articles section, links section, â€Å"Feedback† section, and security. 10. Test plan: The test plan will document how the site will be tested, who will do the testing, how bugs will be reported, etc. 11. Site promotion: A plan for promoting the new site will describe various approaches for soliciting inputs while designing the site as well as announcing the availability of the new site. Project benefit measurement plan: A plan for measuring the financial value of the site. Lessons Learned Report: Project Name: Recreational And Wellness Intranet Project Project Sponsor: Andrew Chao Project Managers: Tony Prepared by: Tony, Project Manager Chloe, Programmer/Analyst Patrick, Network Specialist Nancy, Business Analyst Bonnie, Programmer/Analyst Project Dates: 7/26/05 Final Budget: $500,000 1. Did the project meet scope, time, and cost goals? We did meet scope and time goals, but we had to request an additional $10,000, which the sponsor did approve. 2. What was the success criteria listed in the project scope statement? Below is what we put in our project scope statement under project success criteria: â€Å"Our goal is complete this project within nine months for no more than $400,000. The project sponsor, Andrew Chao, has emphasized the importance of the project paying for itself within one year after the intranet site is complete. To meet this financial goal, the intranet site must have strong user input. We must also develop a method for capturing the benefits while the intranet site is in development, tested, and after it is rolled out. If the project takes a little longer to complete or costs a little more than planned, the firm will still view it as a success if it has a good payback and helps promote the firm’s image as an excellent consulting organization.† 3. Reflect on whether or not you met the project success criteria. As stated above, the sponsor was not too concerned about going over budget as long as the system would have a good payback period and help promote our firm’s image. We have already documented some financial and image benefits of the new intranet site. For example, we have decided that we can staff the MYH with one less person, resulting in substantial cost savings. We have also received excellent feedback from several of our clients about the new intranet site. 4. In terms of managing the project, what were the lessons your team learned from this project?  The main lessons we learned include the following: Having a good project sponsor was instrumental to project success. We ran into a couple of difficult situations, and Tony was very creative in helping us solve problems. Teamwork was essential. It really helped to take time for everyone to get to know each other at the kick-off meeting. It was also helpful to  develop and follow a team contract. Good planning paid off in execution. We spent a fair amount of time developing a good project charter, scope statement, WBS, schedules, and so on. Everyone worked together to develop these planning documents, and there was strong buy-in. Project management software was very helpful throughout the project. 5. Describe one example of what went right on this project.  One example of what went right on this project is can help improve employee health to reduce intranet cost by negotiates lower employee health care premiums. When employee has a better health, it can lead to better performance in daily company operation. Beside that, it also can increase employee motivation and loyalty to company and help company built up healthy image to public. 6. Describe one example of what went wrong on this project. One example of what went wrong on this project is the cost of this project was over budget. We did meet our schedule goal, and the final cost for the whole system was about $500,000. 7. What will you do differently on the next project based on your experience working on this project? We will do differently on the next project based on this project is give more care and thought this project for about when we do the estimate time requirements and identify required resources and budget. We must very carefully when our choose the resources because we should take budget to identify it and should be wise to control the over-budget.