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 For Milestone Two, you will explain the research design and methods that will be used to address the business problem you identified in Milestone One, justifying why they are appropriate for your research study. To support your research design, describe the methods you will use, the key variables, and ethical considerations involved in using the research design. 

Masters Degree level

MUST PAY ATTENTION TO ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Deliverable 2 – Design a Research Strategy in Order to Answer a Research Question

Competency

Design a research strategy in order to answer a research question.

Scenario

You are a first-year graduate student. You are taking a graduate course on research and writing. In this assignment, your professor has asked you to design a research strategy for a research question and write the Methods section of a research paper.

Instructions

In a paper for your professor, create a methods section for a research study:

• State the research question and explain what your research strategy will be for answering that question. Will you follow quantitative, qualitative, or mixed method strategy? Explain why you chose the strategy. If possible, use research to justify your choice.
• Detail the steps you will need to follow in your strategy and what you will need to consider.
• Explain your plan for collecting data:
  • What type(s) of data will you collect and how much?
  • Where will you get your data from?
  • How will you analyze and interpret the data?

 Create a new job description for a store manager position and develop a succession plan strategy (6 pages) for those who seek a promotion into supervisory and management positions, either for FFH or within your own workplace (or an organization you are familiar with).

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Apply legal standards in human resource management decision making and practice.
  • Analyze steps for designing a career development plan for FFH stores (or a selected organization).        
• Competency 3: Develop human resource management strategy recommendations to support organizational goals in a dynamic environment.
  • Recommend a succession plan strategy for each FFH position (or a selected organization’s roles/titles).
• Competency 4: Develop strategies to address HR needs and opportunities for a multicultural and inclusive workforce.
  • Explain what internal policies need to be reviewed or implemented to support FFH’s (or a selected organization’s) succession planning initiative.
• Competency 5: Communicate human resource management needs, opportunities, and strategies with multiple stakeholders.
  • Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for human resource professionals and master’s-level programs.

Preparation

If you choose to base this assessment on FFH, view the FFH Organization Structure and Job Description for Succession Planning | Transcript multimedia. This interactive has information on FFH’s assistant store manager position, two assistant store managers, four shift supervisors, twelve department supervisors, and assistant department supervisors. These roles and job requirements support this assessment.

If you choose to use your own workplace (or an organization you are familiar with), conduct research to locate the necessary information.

Instructions

FFH currently has 18 store managers who are over the age of 65, and most are considering retirement from the retail store chain. This presents quite the challenge in a changing economy with a global view, so there is an urgent need to create a new job description for the FHH store manager position and a succession plan strategy that addresses steps to take, policies to consider, and appropriate recommendations. If you choose to use a different organization, imagine a similar situation.

Include the following in your succession plan strategy for HR management and organizational leaders:

• Analyze steps for designing a career development plan for FFH stores or a selected organization. What specific training programs should be included for these supervisory and management positions? What external development sources would you use? What legal standards need to be considered?
• Explain what internal policies would need to be reviewed or implemented to support FFH’s or a selected organization’s succession planning initiative. How would diversity planning be impacted? 
• Recommend a succession plan strategy for each FFH position or a selected organization’s roles/titles. FFH’s positions include:
  • Assistant Department Supervisor.
  • Department Supervisor.
  • Shift Supervisor.
  • Assistant Store Manager.

Your succession plan strategy should demonstrate graduate-level writing skills through the accurate communication of thoughts that support a central idea and use of correct grammar and mechanics as expected of a human resources professional.

Additional Requirements

• References: Support your analysis with at least two academic, scholarly, or professional resources
• Format: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and format.
• Length: Six pages, in addition to the references list.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point. 

This is not a formal Wilderness Medicine class, and we are not certifying, or developing treatment skills for you to provide medical care in the backcountry. With that being said, it is still important to learn about the most common medically related risks that can occur in the backcountry. For the next few weeks we will identify the following components for different Wilderness First Aid Topics:

‘Signs and Symptoms’ – How to identify the problem. What are the most common physical, psychological signs that something is wrong. How do these medical issues manifest themselves over time and what indicators can alert us to the medical issue?

‘Treatment’ – How you solve the problem. What are the most common, and effective treatment options as agreed upon by the medical community?

‘Prevention’- How to avoid the problem. The most common methods and strategies for avoiding these wilderness risks.

This week please address the above components for each medical topic below. (sentences or bullet format are acceptable)

Altitude Illness- AMS, HACE, HAPE
Blisters
Heat Related Illnessess
Hypothermia
Insect Bites and Animal Bites
Allergies and Anaphylaxis

*Again, completion of these sections, and/or of this course, does not certify you in any way to diagnose or treat medical complications in the front country or backcountry. If you are interested in becoming a certified Wilderness Medicine Practitioner, please search for Wilderness First Aid, or Wilderness First Responder courses near you.

Resources

https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/atg/PDFs/Take_a_Class/WRFA_ERG_9781584806295.pdf  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

http://www.ewbdenver.org/wiki/files/b/b6/WFA_Course.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

If you use your own resource please add a link at the end of your submission. 

300 Words

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. 

Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

You have completed Parts 1 and 2 of the Organizational Change Action Plan project. This week, you will begin to work on Part 3 of the project. Remember, Part 4 of the project (References and Appendices) will be worked on throughout the course.

Based upon the course readings, supplementary materials, and your own literature search via the CTU online library, discuss the following:

Evaluate the academic and practitioner literature as applied to the client organization Discuss how systems interact. For example, describe the importance of understanding system dynamics.

Provide at least 2 scholarly resources to support your response. Use the LIBRARY or the MGMT Doctoral Library for help.

(Signature Assignment: Critical Thinking, Introduced Level)

Compliance and the HR Functions

Before starting this assignment, be sure that you are familiar with what is meant by “critical thinking.”

Critical thinking is one of the five key rubric criteria by which your assignments are graded. Therefore, you are expected to demonstrate evidence of critical thinking in all assignments. For an overview of critical thinking, first read the Kurland article and then review the chart and watch the video:

What is Critical Thinking? (2012) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oAf3g5_138

Foundation for Critical Thinking (2015). Our Concept and Definition of Critical Thinking. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-concept-of-critical-thinking/411

Kurland, D. (2000). What is critical thinking? Critical Reading. Retrieved from http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_thinking.htm

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. (2014) A must-have chart featuring critical thinking skills. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/a-must-have-chart-featuring-critical.html

For this assignment, review the following:

HR Hero. (2017). Employment at Will. Retrieved from http://topics.hrhero.com/employment-at-will-and-employment-law/

HR Hero. (2017). USERRA (The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act). http://topics.hrhero.com/userra-uniformed-services-employment-and-reemployment-rights-act/

U.S. Department of Agriculture (n.d.) IRCA Antidiscrimination Provisions. Retrieved from http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/legal19/ircadisc.htm.

Case Assignment

You will explore the topics below and how they impact the private sector (not the public sector) workplace:

• Employment at Will Doctrine
• Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
• USERRA

Address the following in a 4- to 5-page paper (not counting the cover page, references page and Appendix), supporting your arguments with citations to sources from the course and your research. Use at least five Trident Online Library sources, plus any applicable background readings to support your discussion.

1. Provide a half-page summary of Employment at Will Doctrine, IRCA, and USERRA. Include these summaries together in one Appendix at the end of your paper.
2. Discuss how major Human Resource Management functions are impacted as you discuss the following:
   • Examine employment at will and its exceptions. Explain the exception that has had the greatest impact on the private sector workplace.
   • Discuss the one most important change you see is needed to the IRCA and explain your reasoning.
   • Review USERRA and detail its positive and negative impacts on the private sector workplace.

Use question and answer (Q&A) format for your response; in other words, include the original question along with your answer in the reply. Within your post, support your responses with information from at least two reputable sources (library and/or Web-based) and provide the full citation at the end. Use APA format for your references. Bring in your own personal experiences, if applicable.

1. Assume that senior management has just learned that there is a union organizing effort going on. This is the second time in four years that the hourly employees have tried to unionize. As an HR manager in this union-free company with 500 plant (hourly) employees located in a large industrial city, what actions would you recommend to senior management to remain union-free? Why?
2. Assume there has been a discussion about using an employee participation program (EPP) in the workplace. What is your opinion of using an EPP? Why?
3. What are the advantages of an EPP?
4. What are the disadvantages of an EPP?

Be sure to consider anti-union prohibitions under the National Labor Relations Act and other pertinent legislation.

Santa Cruz Bicycles

Read Case 5-1 “Santa Cruz Bicycles” and then answer the following questions.

What, in your opinion, was the key factor in Santa Cruz Bicycles’ successful process redesign? 

Why was that factor the key? 

What outside factors had to come together or Santa Cruz Bicycles to be able to make the changes they did? 

As CEO of the organization, what would you have done differently and why?

Your answers should be in your own words, but should also incorporate (and cite) key terms and concepts from the reading and lectures for this week’s assignment.

Your submission should approximately be in APA format, two full pages, double spaced, running header, subheadings, in-text citations and a reference list.

In order to make decisions about the value of any research study for practice, it is important to understand the general processes involved in analyzing research data. By now, you have examined enough research studies to be aware that there are some common ways that data are reported and summarized in research studies. For example, the sample is often described by numbers of participants and by certain characteristics of those participants that help us determine how representative the sample is of a population. The information about the sample is commonly reported in tables and graphs, making use of frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and dispersion. Information about the variables (or concepts) of interest when quantified are also reported in similar manner.

Although the actual data analysis takes place after data have been collected, from the initial planning of a research study, the researcher needs to have an awareness of the types of questions that can be answered by particular data analysis techniques.

For this Discussion, review the case study entitled “Social Work Research: Measuring Group Success.” Consider the data analysis described in that case. Recall the information presented in the earlier chapters of your text about formulating research questions to inform a hypotheses or open-ended exploration of an issue.

Post an explanation of the types of descriptive and/or inferential statistics you might use to analyze the data gathered in the case study. Also explain how the statistics you identify can guide you in evaluating the applicability of the study’s findings for your own practice as a social worker. Please use the resources to support your answer.

  Case Study

Social Work Research: Measuring Group Success

The 12-week psychoeducational support group for survivors of trauma I facilitated consisted of eight women (five of whom identified as Caucasian and three of whom were Hispanic in origin) who had a history of sexual abuse and/or incest. All of the women spoke English, were between 30 and 50 years old, and identified as heterosexual. One woman in the group was married, and the rest were either divorced or single. Five of the women had children. The majority were gainfully employed except for one group member who had multiple sclerosis and was on Social Security Disability Insurance. Members were recruited via internal agency referrals or referrals from other social workers. All members were required to meet individually with a social worker while they attended group.

The majority of the group members were incest survivors; only two were molested by strangers. All of the members had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms that included hypervigilance, nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety. The abuse had affected their interpersonal relationships, professional growth, self-esteem, and general quality of life. The majority of incest survivors in the group had estranged themselves from their families as a result of anger and resentment toward a parent who did not protect them from the abuser.

My treatment goal was teaching group members how to accept and integrate their abuse into their life narratives so that the events did not define who they were as individuals. With the tools learned during the group process, members would then be able to manage their lives, utilizing learned mindfulness and relaxation techniques, positive affirmations, and coping skills that would assist them in making healthy life choices.

During each of the 12 weeks, I covered a specific topic related to life issues affected by sexual abuse. All members were asked to sign confidentiality agreements and review group rules during the first meeting. Members’ feelings were validated and supported throughout the process. I gave a pretest to each member in the form of a Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). The scale was administered in order to measure members’ current emotional baselines before being exposed to the therapeutic group process. The basic 42-item questionnaire was known to have high internal consistency and to yield meaningful discriminations in a variety of settings. Members were asked to use 4-point severity/frequency scales to rate the extent to which they had experienced each state. The Likert scale indicated a “0” for the least depressed/anxious/stressed choice and “3” for the most depressed/anxious/stressed choice per item. Total scores ranged from a minimum of 0 (no distress) to a maximum distress of 126. Scores for each symptom were summed, and the higher scores indicated more distress. The pretest scores summed by symptom for group members consisted of the following: depression 210, anxiety 138, and stress 190.

I utilized a feminist empowerment model and strengths perspective framework during the group process. The model focused on strengthening women in such areas as assertiveness, communication, relationships, and self-esteem. Members were then able to develop the tools needed to reach their potential as unique and valuable individuals.

Group cohesion had formed by the third session as members felt more comfortable sharing their personal stories, feelings, and experiences with sexual abuse. The psychoeducational format enabled members to increase their knowledge over the course of the sessions in such topics as dealing with crisis, survival skills, anger, challenging negative schemas, healthy support systems, self-esteem, building healthy relationships, healing sexually, and, finally, mourning losses and moving on.

I administered the DASS posttest in week 12 to measure any emotional changes. With “0” being the least depressed/anxious/stressed and “3” being the most depressed/anxious/stressed choices, the summed scores for all symptoms dropped 72% and reflected those of the eight members who remained in the group through the last session when the posttest was administered. Posttest summed scores resulted in depression 45 (vs. 210 pretest), anxiety 45 (vs. 138 pretest), and stress 61 (vs. 190 pretest), attesting to the validity of the current group format. In addition, the members were given an agency evaluation qualitative measurement form to fill out in order to rate member satisfaction with the agency’s group format. The evaluation form consisted of some questions in yes/no format and others as fill-ins. Answers were positive for all members. Finally, members were given “diplomas” consisting of an inspirational affirmation based on the principles of dignity and self-worth.

For this assignment, you will use your library search skills to find two academic resources related to your topic area and general research skills to find one non-academic resource (look for a news article from a reputable publication or a government report). You will enter the three in your citation manager of choice and use it to generate your in-text citations (in the newest APA format) and a references section at the end of the document.
You will:
1. Briefly summarize (not direct quoting unless extremely relevant) and appropriately cite your sources to avoid plagiarism, each of the three resources.
2. Provide a one-to-two page analysis of what these resources mean for the topic area you have chosen. What key insights can be taken away? 
Upload your word document with references directly here.