Managerial Decision Making Research Analysis

Focus of the Final Paper

Research a specific company of your choice and identify some of the managerial decisions that were made over time and in response to changes in its market or competitive environment. At least three external scholarly sources must be used.

Address all of the following areas:

• Describe the company and provide a brief history of its operations. Find or use graphs to illustrate its financial performance over the years.
• Describe any sources of risk or uncertainty in its operations. Do the financial reports indicate risky or uncertain activities or changes to the economic environment that ultimately appear to have affected the company’s financial outcomes? Be specific.
• Are there any government regulations that have affected this company’s operations domestically or abroad? Explain.
• Describe the inputs that are used in this company’s production function and identify any challenges to securing these inputs.
• Determine if the company has introduced new products in existing markets or created new markets over time. What is the impact on its finances?
• Determine if the price of its products increased or declined over time and analyze the reasons for price fluctuations. Study the demand elasticity for its products and discuss the availability of close substitutes for its products. How does that affect pricing decisions?
• Analyze the company’s profitability. Identify the economy or industry influences on its costs, operations, and profitability.
• Describe the competitive environment in which the firm operates, the distribution of market power, and the strategic behavior of the firm and its competitors. Apply your knowledge of the theory of this company’s market structure. How does the company make pricing and production decisions? Is your observation supported by the theoretical models? Refer to the financial reports for illustration.
  Describe any non-price competitive strategies that the company might be engaging in. Provide specific examples.
• Evaluate if the company made any mistakes in its decisions over time, and recommend any changes or improvements for future operations. Refer to the financial reports when making specific observations or recommendations..

Use economic language and demonstrate your understanding of the concepts and theories of this course.

Writing the Final Paper

The Final Paper:

1. Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (excluding including the title and reference pages), and formatted according to APA style.
2. Must include a title page with the following:
   1. Title of paper
   2. Student’s name
   3. Course name and number
   4. Instructor’s name
   5. Date submitted
3. Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement which identifies the focus of the paper.
4. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
6. Must use at least three scholarly sources.
7. Must document all sources in APA style.
8. Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style

M7D2: Looking to the Future

In this activity, draft a resume that represents your professional accomplishments through formal education and work experiences, highlights of projects and scholarly presentations, professional affiliations, and community service. This activity represents a summary of your achievements to keep current and ready for potential employers as each of you look to the future and advance within the nursing profession. The resume activity is graded within the discussion rubric and it is not a separate written assignment.

• 1- Draft a resume that includes key elements that articulate your career goal(s), education and work experience, projects and scholarly presentations, professional affiliations, and community service and post it in your discussion thread.
• 2- Read through ALL the discussions and respond to resume drafts prepared by your peers with constructive feedback.
• 3- Comment back to your peers who reviewed your resume draft and refine your resume.

M6D2: Professional Evaluation and Collaboration

In this activity, we will be applying principles of appreciative inquiry to professional evaluation and collaboration across practice, leadership, and academic settings.  We will also begin to frame appreciative inquiry items within a self-evaluation process of one’s nursing performance.

• Continue to discuss how a model of pride and achievements through appreciative inquiry enhances the professional evaluation processes and collaboration within and across a variety of areas: nursing practice, leadership/management positions, and academic settings.
• Design TWO questions within the appreciative inquiry framework that could be used for a self-evaluation of your nursing performance.

1. How many times louder is a 60 dB sound than a 10 dB sound?
2. How many times more energy is released by a magnitude 5 earthquake than by a magnitude 3 earthquake?
3. When you are 2 meters away from the speakers at a concert, the sound level is 140 db. How far away should you sit to reduce the level to 100 dB?

M5A2

1. Japan earthquake took place near Honshu in 2011. It was a magnitude 9 earthquake. Some of the aftershocks were magnitude 7. How many times more energy was released by the magnitude 9 earthquake than by the magnitude 7 aftershocks?

2. How many times louder is a jackhammer than a washing machine if a jackhammer produces a 120 dB sound and a washing machine produces an 80 db sound?

3. , “Any noise above 85 dB is considered unsafe. Most firecrackers produce sounds starting at 125 dB.” Some Category 2 fireworks (sometimes called “garden fireworks”) produce a sound intensity of 125 dB 0.5 meters away from the ignition site. Based on this information, what is the minimum distance friends and family should stand away from the ignition site to be at a safe hearing distance?

Summary:

This module provided an in-depth analysis of non-hospital entities (ambulatory care, long-term care, and behavioral health services), with a focus on how the move away from hospital-based care has affected the healthcare organization and the community that it serves. This Module reviewed the major elements of ambulatory (outpatient) care. Ambulatory care encompasses a diverse and growing sector of the health care delivery system. Physician services are the chief component; however, hospital outpatient and emergency departments, community health centers, departments of health, and voluntary agencies also contribute important services, particularly for the uninsured and vulnerable populations. Ambulatory surgery is a continuously expanding component of ambulatory care, as new technology enables more procedures to be performed safely and economically outside the hospital.

The number of Americans requiring long-term care services is increasing. Advances in medical care have made a longer life span not only possible but more probable, even in the presence of ongoing chronic disease and disability. This module provided an overview of the diverse array of long-term care services presently provided in institutional, community, and home-based settings. Particular attention was given to the long-term care needs of older adults because they are the fastest growing proportion of the population in the United States today and are the major consumers of long-term care services.

Lastly, this module described the clinical characteristics of people who receive behavioral health services. Historic trends and forces affecting the distribution and kinds of care were examined and compared with epidemiological data regarding the prevalence of psychiatric disorders to hypothesize whether national needs for mental health care were being met. Evolution in the science and technology available for the treatment of psychiatric disorders was reviewed briefly. Opportunities for improvement and evidence of the impact of managed care on effective mental health service delivery were examined.

Demographic shifts will shape the future. An increasing number of debates and discussions are surfacing around the social, economic, and health implications of demographic and social change. All of these concerns present new challenges for public policy, government, business, and the health care industry. Several critical issues and trends deserve attention-the aging baby boomers, the increasing ethnic and radical diversity, the growing disparity between the richest and the poorest households, and the future burden of disease.

Assignment:

1. Given the increasing longevity of Americans and the costs of providing long-term care, anticipation of the costs should be a major element of every family’s financial planning. Current information suggests however, that very few families or individuals give this consideration. What factors might impede this advance planning? What measures might be effective in raising awareness among Americans about this important matter?
2. Identify the major factors that have resulted in the shift in utilization from inpatient hospitalization to ambulatory care services. What are the implications of this shift for hospitals, consumers, and the health care delivery system as a whole?
3. The recipients of mental health services in the US represent only a small percentage of those in need of services. Discuss the factors that impede access to mental illness treatment.

Please submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of four scholarly sources, in addition to the textbook.

Answer for question

1. Given the increasing longevity of Americans and the costs of providing long-term care, anticipation of the costs should be a major element of every family’s financial planning. Current information suggests however, that very few families or individuals give this consideration. What factors might impede this advance planning? What measures might be effective in raising awareness among Americans about this important matter?

In the United States, policy makers, health professionals, and patient advocacy groups have promoted the process of advance care planning, that is, planning for future medical care in the event that a person is unable to make his or her own decisions at the end of life. Advance care planning allows persons with chronic and ultimately fatal illnesses to convey preferences to guide decisions when they cannot speak for themselves. However, many people do not engage in advance care planning discussions, which results in documents such as a living will. A common reason for this is that they do not perceive advance care planning as sufficiently urgent.

But advance care planning has a plausible value for at least 1 group of persons. Unlike persons suffering from other chronic diseases of adulthood, patients with dementia experience a period during which they can participate in decisions followed by several years when they cannot make decisions, requiring others, often family members, to make decisions for them. These decisions include difficult end-of-life choices, but for several years before death they will also include day-to-day decisions about their care and daily living.

One way to achieve patient-centered care and maintain patient autonomy for patients with dementia is to elicit their health care values and preferences before they lose their ability to state those preferences. In the early stage of dementia, the patient has a plausible window of time to talk with family about what goals and values should inform a range of future decisions. Without these discussions, families are left struggling to make decisions about nursing home placement and end-of-life care without the guidance of the patients’ preferences. The prevalence of this problem is likely to increase by the year 2050 when the number of persons with dementia in the United States is estimated to reach 11 to 16 million.

Although, advance care planning is appealing for dementia patients and their family members, little is known about the strategies that can facilitate advance care planning discussions or about the reasons why people do not have these discussions. Understanding these strategies and reasons is crucial to fostering

Factors that might impede the advance planning:

1. People are more concerned at living the moment and spending moe to fulfill their excessive needs.
2. No control and judgement between needs and wants.
3. Lack of training for teaching the importance of saving at an early stage of life.
4. Lack of concern for others. People are becoming more self-seeking.
5. Over avaibility of leisure activities and expensive hobbies.

Possible measures:

1. Training by the family at an early stage of life for saving money.
2. Camps and catchy advertisements of the importance of financial planning.
3. Awareness by making them realise what difference can be made by this planning.
4. Showcasing long term benefits and ease of life at a later period in life in exchange of a minor saving.
5. Promoting hobbies that improve social life and habits of people so that in a long term they become more responsible.

Answers for question

2. Identify the major factors that have resulted in the shift in utilization from inpatient hospitalization to ambulatory care services. What are the implications of this shift for hospitals, consumers, and the health care delivery system as a whole?

A few of the major factors driving an increased emphasis on ambulatory care facilities in the healthcare system are cost, ambulatory care units can be built in locations that are significantly less expensive to operate than hospitals. Technology advancement enables outpatient facilities to deliver coordinate treatment regimens. Patient expectations- ambulatory facilities can provide the convenience of easy access and a shorter visit length that patients want, another factor is competition, hospitals can now compete with other healthcare organizations by adding ambulatory services which is less costly than making capital investment in hospitals. The ambulatory services are beneficial for the hospitals, physicians and consumers becarthe severity of injury or risk of death can be recuced to the maximum extent. This maximum improves both the patient and healthcare relationships .

Answer for question

3. The recipients of mental health services in the US represent only a small percentage of those in need of services. Discuss the factors that impede access to mental illness treatment.

Main factors which impede the access to mental illness treatment are

1. limited availability of medication and health professionals.
2. Limited affordability_as psychological illness treatment are not covered by insurance policies which make it unaffordable.
3. Lack of education
4. Stigma- as patients may attempt to distance themselves from the labels that mark them for social exclusion which often prevents patients from seeking and adhering to treatment.

M2A1 Change Management Simulation: Power and Influence

In this single-player simulation, you will play one of two roles at a sunglass manufacturing firm and face the challenges associated with implementing an organization-wide environmental sustainability initiative. The initiative seeks to change raw material inputs in order to make the company’s products more “green,” and also to address environmental waste issues. The simulation includes up to four scenarios with different combinations of two important factors for creating change: the relative power of the change agent and the relative urgency associated with the change initiative. In each scenario, you will choose among different change levers in an attempt to persuade key members of the organization to adopt the change initiative. You will be assessed on your ability to achieve the greatest percentage of adopters within the company while simultaneously using the fewest resources.

You will analyze information on leadership and influence within the organization. Throughout the experience you will be assessing the impact of your decisions on the ability to influence key employees to work on the change initiative. Failure to accurately communicate and analyze information as a team has negative consequences on team performance.

The main goals of this activity include learning:

• how to build an effective strategy and influence key personnel into following your lead;
• how to develop flexibility and adaptation in management initiatives;
• how cognitive biases impair decision-making;
• how strategy can help one deal more effectively in situations where there is resistance to change and conflict in organizational members’ opposing interests;
• how different leadership approaches can be obstructed in situations with time and competitive pressures; and
• how leaders deal with the tradeoffs between short-term task orientations and longer-term effectiveness.

Future Considerations Pertaining to the Simulation Experience

You will be working on the simulation during Modules 2, 4, and 6. At the end of Module 8, you will submit your final simulation project. Take notes as you engage in the simulation and be sure to document your decision-making criteria and the impact of your decisions, and attend to the measurements of success. You will also need to consider how course materials impact your decisions. You should be blending together the conceptual components of the course to inform your decision making in the simulation.

There will be three parts to your simulation submission:

Part I: Setting the Strategy

In this section, you will discuss the strategy that you developed before executing your plans and steps. You should address the following:

• How and why did you choose the CEO or Product Innovation Role?
• What was your vision, mission, and core strategy for the Simulation?
• Provide a SWOT analysis of your expectations.

Part II: Executing your Strategy

In this section, you will discuss the decision-making strategy you used throughout the simulation. You will address the following:

• What occurrences and incidents impacted your decision?
• What adjustments did you have to make to your strategy?
• When did your strategy succeed and when did it fail?
• How did you adapt and what was the impact?
• What criteria did you use to make adjustments?

Part III: Analyzing Your Strategy

In this final section, you are to analyze what you have learned about strategy setting, change management, and their impact on success and failure. You will address the following:

• What have you learned about strategy, power, and leadership, and their impact on success?
• How does data impact decision making?
• How could you have improved your performance?
• What conclusions can you draw based upon this experience?

Your final paper submission should be 5 to 7 pages in length, not including the title and reference pages style, and double-spaced, in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with one inch margins. Include at least two resources, other than your course textbook, to support your findings.

Compose your work in a .doc or .docx file type using a word processor (such as Microsoft Word, etc.) and save it frequently to your computer. For those assignments that are not written essays and require uploading images or PowerPoint slides, please follow uploading guidelines provided by your instructor.

Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Upload Submission.”  Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer, and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.”  Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”

M1A1 Strategic Analysis: Choose an Organization

For your strategic analysis assignment, you should choose an organization that you are familiar with. You will develop a strategic analysis for this organization in order to determine whether or not adopting a new sustainability initiative is possible. The sustainable initiative you will be writing about is whether or not the organization should use recycled materials to build their products without re-dying or modifying the material in any way. Consider parent companies if the organization is a subsidiary, or stockholders if the organization is public.

Your proposal should include the following:

• The organization you chose and why you chose it.
• The organization’s history, the industry it is in, and its market position.
• The organization’s staff, relations, corporate culture, and mission.
• Your rationale for why the sustainable initiative makes sense to implement in the organization. This should be supported by evidence, and should address both management and all the stakeholders.

This assignment should be 3 to 4 pages in length, include evidence-based research, and be formatted following APA guidelines.

Compose your work in a .doc or .docx file type using a word processor (such as Microsoft Word, etc.) and save it frequently to your computer. For those assignments that are not written essays and require uploading images or PowerPoint slides, please follow uploading guidelines provided by your instructor.

English 1100 – Learning Statement

This first assignment will get us to start thinking about what our expectations are for clear, effective communication by writing and revising a short learning statement.

For this assignment, you need to reflect on the value of writing well. In this reflection, you can also address the reasons why you are taking this class. This “learning statement” can take any form you would like, but it should offer a logical and cohesive picture of your expectations/goals/etc. for this class.

Here are some ideas to get you going (you do not need to address any/all of these if you do not want to):

• Why is strong writing important today? What purpose does it serve in the modern world, and why might the ability to write well be a particularly advantageous skill to have?
• Discuss your previous writing experiences. What are your strengths? What do you need to work on?
• What is the mark of good writing? Do you emulate this strategy in your own writing? Why, or why not?
• Discuss the specific skills you hope to gain. Why do you hope to gain these?
• What role has writing played in your life and what role will it play during your time in university or afterwards? How do you perceive the role of writing in your discipline?
• What are your expectations for this class? What are your expectations of yourself? How will you ensure you meet your expectations? Be specific: what strategies will you use to ensure you reach your goals for this class?

Remove yourself from the role of employee and think of yourself as an outside consultant. Questions you should ask when preparing your change (but are not limited to the following:

1. How will you sell this change to management/ employees?
2. How will my change affect management/ employees?
3. What is the likelihood that management/ those affected will approve the change?
4. What is in it for management/ employees?
5. Will the change create more or less work for management/ employees?
6. What will be the overall benefits for management/ employees to accept this proposal?
7. Can I prove that this proposal for change affects management/ supervision of my organization/ department?
8. What is the impact on human resources in the organization? Will there need to be an increase (or decrease) in staff? Will there be any training needs as a result of the change?