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One key criticism of global civil society is that it is not representative. What do critics mean when they suggest this? Do you agree or disagree with this claim? Why?

Consulting Project

This assignment is worth 20% of your grade. Your consulting report should be original work;If you have any questions about this assignment, please post them in the Ask the Professor discussion forum so that everyone can benefit from the answers.  This assignment addresses Course Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

This assignment has been adapted from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Managing Virtual Work Teams – A SHRM case study by Frankie S. Jones, PhD.

For this assignment there are three parts. 

· Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams 

· Part II: Building a Virtual Team

· Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually

Directions: you will review, discuss, and address questions in each of these parts in order to arrive at your collective responses. 

After reviewing all three parts associated with this case, you will prepare a 4-7 page paper that addresses the questions in each of the three parts.  This paper will serve as your voice to coach Lauren on how to lead her cross-functional team to success and overcome the issues presented in the case study..  Your paper should include a minimum of 8 references from sources published within the last ten years. 

Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams

Lauren is assigned team leader of a cross-functional team for a very important project to the company.  Lauren reviews the profiles of the six team members her boss gave her.  She is both intrigued and anxious when she sees that team members are geographically dispersed.

Lauren works in the Atlanta office.  One team member is in India; another is in Germany; and the rest live in the United States, but in different time zones.  Two staff members are in the eastern time zone (Virginia and North Carolina) and two staff members are in the central time zone (Texas and Louisiana).

Lauren has never managed a virtual team and is unsure what special skills it will take to be successful.  She begins to wonder what competencies are necessary for virtual team leaders and members.  She studies the team member profiles and creates a matrix to evaluate each member’s strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of working virtually.  She includes herself because she realizes she needs to evaluate her own strengths and weaknesses.  Lauren thinks about the challenges and opportunities she will face managing this virtual team. 

In your assigned groups, you are to: 

· Analyze the supplied team member matrix. 

· Identify challenges and opportunities Lauren’s team might face. 

· Brainstorm ways to capitalize on opportunities and address challenges.

· Record your ideas in the group discussion forum.

Team Member Matrix

Team Member

Location (Time Zone)

Communication Preferences

Virtual experience

Strengths

Weaknesses

Lauren   (Team Manager)

Atlanta, GA (Eastern)

E-mail

No

• Building and maintaining trust.

• Performance management and   coaching.

• Networking.

• Appropriate use of information technology.

• Developing and adapting standard team processes.

• Managing across cultures.

Santosh

Pune,   India (GMT+05:30)

Instant   messaging

Yes

• Interpersonal awareness.

• Use of technology.

• Self-management.

• Project management.

John

Wilmington,   NC (Eastern)

Telephone

No

• Networking face-to-face.

• Use of technology.

• Spanning boundaries.

Joyce

Norfolk, VA (Eastern)

E-mail

Yes

• Self-management.

• Project management.

• Networking.

Helga

Berlin, Germany (Central   European)

SharePoint;   Webconferencing (with video)

Yes

• Use of technology.

• Interpersonal awareness.

• Project management.

Adam

Dallas, TX (Central)

Instant messaging, discussion boards

No

• Networking via technology.

• Spanning boundaries.

• Use of technology.

Brenda

New Orleans, LA (Central)

Instant messaging; blogs; SharePoint; e-mail

Yes

• Use of technology.

• Interpersonal awareness.

• Networking.

• Spanning boundaries.

• Self-management.

Part II: Building a Virtual Team

Lauren has evaluated the challenges and opportunities that could arise as she manages her virtual team.  To mitigate challenges and take advantage of opportunities, she decides to conduct a kick-off meeting next week.  She wants to set the ground rules for how her team will operate and present them at the kick-off meeting.  What topics should Lauren’s agenda include?  Which ground rules should she mandate and which should she negotiate?  How will she build relationships and trust during this initial meeting?

In your assigned groups, you are to: 

· Create an agenda for Lauren’s kick-off meeting. 

· Explain why you chose each agenda topic.

· Describe what technology Lauren might use to conduct the kick-off meeting.

· Identify ground rules for the team, and propose which ground rules Lauren should mandate and which ones she should negotiate. 

· Recommend ways that Lauren could build relationships and trust during this initial meeting.

· Record your responses in the group discussion forum.

Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually

Even though your team presented Lauren with an agenda for the kickoff meeting, along with ground rules, she used the agenda below for the kick-off meeting. 

She set expectations for status reporting, the technologies to be used, and performance management.  The types of communication the team agreed on included e-mail, instant messaging, and web conferencing.  The team also agreed to use Microsoft SharePoint to report project status and to create a virtual community for team members to build relationships and trust.  Lauren asked all team members to upload their pictures and their résumés to jump-start the community.

Lauren’s Agenda:

· Getting-to-Know-You Activity

· Team Goals and Objectives

· Technologies We Will Use (open discussion)

· Virtual Community (pictures and bios)

· Status Reporting

· Team Meetings

· One-on-one meetings

Despite setting ground rules, the following conflicts arose within Lauren’s team:

· Lags in e-mail responses generated mistrust between two team members.

· One team member complained that the other team members tried to use instant messaging to solve complex problems and resolutions are never reached.

· There has been an uneven exchange of project knowledge.

In your assigned groups, you are to:

· Recommend actions Lauren should take now to resolve each of these conflicts.

· Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the conflicts from occurring in the first place. 

· Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team conflict in the future. 

· Record your responses in the group discussion forum.

Name your consulting report this way:

Team X_Consulting Report

(Example: Team 1_Consulting Report)

Due date: Sunday, [insert date], 11:59 p.m. Eastern time

Please see the next page for the grading criteria for this assignment.

Criteria for Grading Group Consulting Project

Note: The group’s paper should be 7 to 10 pages long, excluding the reference and cover pages. 

A

B

C

F

Points Earned

Knowledge of       Relevant Theories and Concepts

(45 pts)

Group       demonstrated exceptional knowledge of relevant theories and concepts from       the course; all statements and opinions were supported by appropriate       citations from the literature.

45 – 41 points

Group       demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of relevant theories and concepts       from the course; most statements and opinions were supported by       appropriate citations from the literature.

40 – 36 points

Group       demonstrated less than satisfactory knowledge of relevant theories and       concepts from the course; some statements and opinions were not supported       by appropriate citations from the literature.

35 – 32 points

Group       demonstrated unsatisfactory knowledge of relevant theories and concepts       from the course; many statements and opinions were not supported by       appropriate citations from the literature.

31 – 0 points

Comments

Quality of       Research

(25 pts)

Group cited more       than the minimum number of references; sources listed were all scholarly       or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books       from the last ten years.

25 – 23 points

Group cited the       minimum number of references; sources listed were primarily scholarly or       practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books from       the last ten years.

22 – 20 points

Group may not       have cited the minimum number of references; some sources listed were not       scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or       academic books from the last ten years.

19 – 18 points

Group did not       cite the minimum number of references; many of the sources listed were       not scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or       academic books from the last ten years.

17 – 0 points

Comments

Presentation of       Ideas and Mechanics

(20 pts)

Group presented       ideas in a compelling manner with no distracting grammar or spelling       problems; the tone was consistently professional and appropriate for the       audience; the page length requirement was met.

20 – 18 points

Group presented       ideas presented in a logical manner with few distracting grammar or spelling       problems; the tone was generally professional and mostly appropriate for       the audience; the page length requirement was met.

17 – 16 points

Group presented       ideas in a somewhat organized manner with several distracting grammar or       spelling problems; the tone was not consistently professional and       appropriate for the audience; the page length requirement may not have       been met.

15 – 14 points

Group presented       ideas in a poorly organized or incoherent manner with many distracting       grammar or spelling problems; the tone was unprofessional and not       appropriate for the audience; the page length requirement may not have       been met.

13 – 0 points

Comments

APA formatting

(5 pts)

All citations, quotations, and references were properly formatted       or contained one or two minor errors.

5 points

Most citations, quotations, and references were       properly formatted or contained a few minor errors.

4 points

Some citations, quotations, and references were       not properly formatted or contained major errors.

3 points

Most citations, quotations, and references were       not properly formatted or contained many errors.

2 – 0 points

Comments

Contribution to       Group’s Work

(5 pts)

Instructor’s observations and peer ratings indicate outstanding       contributions to the group’s work.

5 points

Instructor’s       observations and peer ratings indicate satisfactory contributions to the       group’s work.

4 points

Instructor’s       observations and peer ratings indicate minimal contributions to the       group’s work.

3 points

Instructor’s       observations and peer ratings indicate unsatisfactory or no contributions       to the group’s work.

2 – 0 points

Comments

Total Points       Earned

(100 points max)

Overall Comments

Discussion 1

 “People in this organization don’t talk to one another anymore. Everything is e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. If you are mad at someone, you can just say it and then hide behind your computer.” With these words, Joe expressed his frustrations with Delta General’s operations. Charley echoed his concerns, responding, “I agree, but surely the managing director should be able to improve organizational communication without losing the advantages of e-mail.” As a consultant overhearing this conversation, how do you suggest the managing director respond to Charley’s challenge? 

Discussion 2

 Describe some of the side effects of organizational controls in a large mechanistically structured organization, such as the United States Postal Service. Identify at least one other large mechanistically structured organization that could have the same problems. Use and cite the course textbook in your initial post. 

Assignment Week 5

Final Paper

The purpose of the final paper is to maximize the learning achieved in the course by describing your understanding and application of knowledge in the field of Organizational Behavior. The final paper should also focus on real life, real time application of topics covered in this course; the uses you have seen and the uses you can envision. Devote your attention to situations you have experienced and situations you would have approached differently if given the chance to make adjustments.

Focus of the Final Paper

Select a topic of interest in organizational behavior that you would like to explore with additional research (must use at least five references). Some suggested topics for your paper are:

• Personality
• Organizational Culture
• Stress
• Attitudes
• Motivation
• Attribution
• Performance Management
• Conflict Resolution
• Team building
• Leadership
• Decision Making Process 
• Communication
• Organizational Goals

In your paper,

• Apply the research to your personal working environment, or an environment you have previously experienced.
• Describe how will you use the knowledge you have gained in this course to change the way you interact and do business in the future?

The Final Paper

• Must be six to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including Appendix, References, Exhibits, title and references pages), and formatted according to APA Style (Links to an external site.) as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft Word (Links to an external site.) resource.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper in bold font
    • Space should be between title and the rest of the information on the title page.
  • Student’s name
  • Name of institution (Ashford University)
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Due date
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Writing Center for specifications.

Assignment Overview

Koch Industries is one of the most profitable privately held corporations in the country. In spite of being owned primarily by four brothers, it has not been immune from intense internal power plays and intrigue. A decades-long dispute between CEO Charles Koch and his younger brother Bill Koch led first to an internal battle for control of the company and ended with a lawsuit between the brothers.

Carefully review the background materials regarding sources of power within an organization and influence tactics. Examples of sources of power include reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, and expert power. Examples of influence tactics include forming coalitions, pressure, and exchanging favors. Make sure to understand the main power sources and influence tactics and know the vocabulary and definitions from the background materials before starting the assignment.

The epic battle between two of the Koch brothers tested the limits of both of their power bases within Koch Industries. Both used multiple tactics before Charles Koch ultimately secured his position of almost unrivaled power within the corporation. Do some research about this power struggle using the Trident Online Library and online news sources. Here are some articles to get you started:

Schulman, D. (2014, Jul). Koch vs. Koch. Mother Jones, 39, 16–27,64,2

Tomsho, R. (1989, Aug 09). Blood feud: Koch family is roiled by sibling squabbling over its oil empire: Fired by his brother, William sues often, helps feds to probe Koch Industries, haling mother into court. Wall Street Journal [ProQuest]

Case Assignment

Once you have finished your research, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following issues. Make sure to cite at least 3 of the required background readings in addition to articles about the Koch brothers in your paper:

1. What were Charles and Bill Koch’s sources of power within Koch Industries? Did they have reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, or expert power? Any other sources of power? Refer to Bauer and Erdogan (2012) or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer, as you should demonstrate a solid understanding of these readings as part of your answer.
2. What influence tactics did each of them use in their battle for control? Refer to Bauer and Erdogan (2012) or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer.
3. Ultimately what do you think led to Charles Koch’s victory in this battle, and what do you think are the most important lessons on organizational power that you learned from reading about this power struggle?

Assignment Expectations

• Case Assignments are to be prepared in Microsoft Word and should be 4 to 5 pages in length, in addition to a cover page (course name and number, module number, session name, student name, and date prepared) and a reference list. The paper should be double-spaced, using 12 pt. type in the Times New Roman font. It should consist of a 2- or 3-sentence introduction, a body, and a 2- or 3-sentence conclusion and use Trident University International’s cover page. The reference list page must be in APA format.
• Assignment content should include a brief introduction to the assignment, background information about the organization being studied, and discussion in terms of the concepts or theories being applied in the assignment.
• Use headings and subheadings to improve presentation values.
• Include both a References page and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14 on in-text citations. Attention is to be given to citing sources of information in-text as well as in the References page at the end of the paper. Citation and reference style instructions are available at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/ or at APAstyle.org.
• Submit your report in the Case dropbox for this module on or before the date due, as indicated in the TLC Homepage.
• Since you are engaging in research, be sure to cite and reference the sources in APA format. The paper should be written in the third person; this means words like “I,” “we,” and “you” are not appropriate. For more information, see Differences Between First and Third Person.

Select three legislation’s that relates to a similar or related type of discrimination:

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• One federal legislation
• One state or international legislation

Present a brief summary of each legislation to give an idea of what they cover. Include:

• The name of the legislation with the year
• The purpose of the act
• Who is covered by that law

1. Present at least two similarities and two differences between them.
2. Explain how the organization can work with those laws and how they can protect against those laws.

Response Parameters

• Posts should be at least 300 words in length
• Must include at least one source outside of your textbook
• All sources should be cited in APA format

 For this class, you are asked to submit an individual assignment where you conduct research (using FIU online library, legitimate and credible sources of information on the Internet, and/or other legitimate and credible sources of information such as books that you own or the experts that you have access to) on how to actually be happier in life and in the workplace. 

You are asked to put together a 2-page paper (a minimum of 2 pages and a maximum of 2 pages). The page limit excludes the references (i.e., the reference list at the end of your paper that includes the sources of information that you relied on). The page limit also excludes any inspiring or creative title for the paper that you may include or your personal identifiers (e.g., your name, last name, and panther ID). Because this is a 2-page paper, every single sentence that you write counts. Therefore, please make every sentence count. 🙂 Plan what you are going to write and how you are going to write it in advance so that you can easily work with the 2-page limit. Please remember that you are asked to write a 2-page paper (i.e., with a minimum of 2 pages and a maximum of 2 pages). Planning goes a long way when it comes to producing a high-quality paper and observing the parameters you are given.  

Please divide your paper into two. In the first page, write about how you can be happier in your life. Then, in the second page, write about how you can be happier in your work life. Please separate these two parts under two main headings such as “HOW I CAN BE HAPPIER IN MY OWN LIFE,” and “HOW I CAN BE HAPPIER AT MY WORK LIFE.”

Please use Times New Roman, 12-font, and 1.5 line spacing (you can use single or double spacing if you prefer to do so) and type your paper in a “Word” document. 

 Please make sure that the content of your paper is rich as in it includes different ideas on how you can, in practice, live a more joyful life and have a more joyful experience at work (regardless of what you do for a living). Please also make sure that your paper is practice-oriented in that you provide practical ideas for yourself on how to live a more blissful life and have a more blissful experience at work. In addition, please make sure that your paper is personalized towards your own life and your own self such that the ideas that you present are very relevant to your present and/or future life and how you are planning to keep enhancing your joy and happiness in life and at work. 

 Make sure to include a reference list at the end of your paper where you list the sources that you relied on, ideally, using the APA format. Always be sure to cite the sources of information that you relied on so that you ethically honor others’ ideas and creativity. If you use information from a source verbatim (word by word), make sure that you put that sentence in quotation marks and include which page of the source you took the information from, not to mention the source itself. Alternatively, you can re-word the information (without changing its meaning) that you took from a source and cite, again, the exact source you took the information from (no need for quotation marks in this case). Please feel free to research into the APA format for citing references for more detailed information. Please note that getting savvier at doing research and citing the (credible and legitimate) sources of information that you relied on can help you if you would like to write your own book(s) in the future. 🙂   

Need Good Work 

The Critical Thinking assignments in this course build upon each other to help you complete the final Portfolio Project, an instructional design blueprint for a business or organization. Based on the profile you created in Module 2 and the needs assessment in Module 3, this week you will explore ways to integrate relevant theories into your design blueprint.

For each of the three learning-theory topics that follow, brainstorm instructional design considerations specific to your selected business/organization, and the identified learning and learner needs from your needs assessment:

• Basic theories of learning: behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism, and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Malcolm Knowles’ Adult Learning Theory (or Andragogy)
• Individual characteristics of learning: motivation, goals, experience, culture, and generational differences.

Prior to outlining the design considerations for each of the above three topics, you will first need to describe your identified learners and their needs. This information should be from the results of Stage 3 (learning needs) and Stage 4 (learner needs) of your needs assessment assignment completed in Module 3.

Please ensure that your work is well written, supported by two to three scholarly sources, and in conformance with the CSU Global Writing Center (Links to an external site.). The CSU Global Library is a good place to find these sources. Submit your completed template for grading.

As a human resource manager, how would you deal constructively with complaints and anger from fellow employees, management, and customers within an organization? Are these methods effective to resolve the issues? Explain and discuss.

Your journal entry must be at least 200 words. No references or citations are necessary.

• Discussion: Project Resources
• You have been asked to replace the project manager who was heading up your firm’s new compensation and benefits system. One of the reasons the project manager is being replaced is because the project schedule had the wrong resources assigned (e.g., resources who do not fully understand compensation and benefits). You have been asked to solve this problem quickly by either replacing the resources or getting the resources up-to-speed on compensation and benefits. Present your recommendation for solving this critical resource problem by reviewing the pros and cons of each option.