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Read the Opening Case at the beginning of Chapter 5: Forecasting the Future.

Answer the two critical-thinking questions at the end of the case. Since much of this assignment will

incorporate your insights with the reading of the case, you will also be expected to demonstrate your

comprehension of the HR concepts, trends, issues, and practices that you have been learning in this

course in the way that you answer the question.

Below is a brief summary (without prominent details) of the case:

Case Summary

Information plays a vital role in all organizational activities. Marketing managers need information about

customer preferences and competitor’s products. Operations managers need information about

inventories and product demand. Financial managers need information about interest rates and cash

flows. And human resource managers need information about all of these areas so they can ensure they

have the right employees with the right skills in the right places at the right times.

Consider, for example, three recent developments related to employment in the United States. In one,

major employers in the U.S. pharmaceutical, financial services, and energy sectors cut more than

100,000 jobs in 2014 and 2015. these cuts were due to industry slowdowns and corporate

restructuring. But surprisingly, some of the cuts were also related to improvements in the economy. On

the other hand, during the last three months of 2015 and again in 2016, following an annual ritual, major

U.S. retailers and related businesses announced that they were planning to hire hundreds of thousands of

temporary workers for the holiday season. Finally, Starbucks recently announced a long-term plan of

increasing its global workforce from around 200,000 now to over 500,000

Think It Over

1) What industry sectors are most likely to add jobs during a down economy? What industry sectors

are most likely to add jobs during an improving economy? In each instance, explain your

reasoning.

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Related questions

Objectives:

Ý· Learn how individuals contribute to teamwork

Ý· Experience some of the features of group work and teamwork

Ý· Understand what managers and organizational developers do to transform

Ý· groups into teams

Ý· Articulate the tangible benefits (both quantitative and qualitative) of

Ý· high-performing teams

Ý· Finish with an interest in learning more about these concepts and

Ý· techniques to apply what you learn

Background: For this assignment, you will plan and play a game with your family or friends, or at work based on the idea of the classic prisoner's dilemma. If you have had a class on game theory, you will be well aware of this concept. It forms the basis of many TV game shows. The prisoner's dilemma was illustrated in Truman Capote's book, "In Cold Blood" concerning the 1959 robbery of a Kansas farmhouse by Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who murdered their victims in order to eliminate the witnesses. After the men were captured, the police interrogated them separately. To get a confession, the police offered the men a reduced sentence for cooperating. Failure to cooperate would result in a death penalty charge for both.

In the prisoner's dilemma, if both parties cooperate they are mildly punished; if one betrays another, one is severely punished while the other goes free; and if both betray one-another, both are moderately punished. Can you think of settings where you work in which the organizational structure has created a prisoner's dilemma? Competition can (but does not necessarily) bring out conflict.

In game theory, there are non-cooperative and cooperative games. A non-cooperative zero-sum game has a definite winner and loser. For one to win, one must lose. We often think of politicking as an element of that. A cooperative game is where everyone who plays is better off for having played than not having played the game. That is not to say that everyone is equally well off, but simply better off than they were before playing. Hence, even in a cooperative game, some people will likely benefit more than others.

Instructions

  • Review in your textbook, the Big Five personality dimensions, pp. 82�84, and then consider the 3.1 Personality Insights inventory, pp. 89�91
  • Select four or five friends, coworkers, or family members and have them take the personality inventory
  • Plan and play a game with the participants
  • Write a 5-10 page paper that addresses the assignment questions below


As you plan and play your game, you will negotiate the type of game you want to play and your role in it. Strive to determine some personal characteristics of the game participants a head of time, or by observing them. Consider how the personal characteristics of the individuals in the game manifest themselves in the informal roles they assume during the planning and execution of the game.

For the purpose of this assignment, you will want both a cooperative and a competitive element. To do that, you can form several groups to compete and cooperate with each other, or you can have individuals in one group compete and cooperate. You can use rewards and/or punishments to create the competitive/cooperative motivations.



Evaluation: When groups are formed, we want to consider how organizational structures, processes, and situations impact on group motivation, politics, and goals achievement. Alignment of all of these structural, personal, and interpersonal components will help to ensure that the group will meld into a team. A defining feature of teamwork (versus group work) is cooperation!

One of the factors that affect cooperation is conflict. Conflict is defined as when someone perceives that his/her interests are opposed or negatively impacted by another. Conflict can at times produce positive results depending on the basis for the conflict and how the conflict is handled (functional conflict). The worst kind of dysfunctional conflict produces betrayal.

Note that team performance can be observed in how well the team coordinates their interdependencies, works efficiently, communicates, and accomplishes their mission. Consequently, as you implement your game, assess your players based on these factors and the informal roles they play.

After you have played the game, reflect on the personality assessments your participants took, and then consider how they planned and played the game.

Write a (5- 10) page analysis to address the following questions:

1. How well did the personality assessments reflect in the behaviors participants displayed during the game?

2. What do these assessments tell us about how we perceive ourselves versus how others perceive us?

3. What informal roles did participants assume during the game, and were they different from the planning portion from the playing portion of the exercise?

4. What did I learn about myself? For example, did the exercise show that you have characteristic ways of relating to others that are distinctive, or similar, to those the others? Did the exercise show that in a particular type of situation you acted in a particular way, or that when others acted in a particular way, you felt happy or anxious or angry, etc.?

5. What did I learn about someone else in the exercise? Did you see something new about them, such as "they seemed more capable than I imagined," or "inattentive when things were stressful?"

6. In playing your game, what could you have done to increase cooperative behaviors?

7. Based on your game experience, what are some of the key factors involved in gaining cooperation from people in a business setting?


8. How would you go about getting cooperation from a "difficult" co-worker? Give an example or scenario.



Please provide a unique type of game theory preferably instead of Mafia Game.


Text:

Organizational Behavior and Management 10th Edition

John Ivancevich, Robert Konopaske, Michael Matteson



Supervisors often avoid conducting counseling sessions with employees because the supervisors anticipate, sometimes correctly, that the session will be personally unpleasant. Most individuals simply do not enjoy confronting other individuals with judgments about performance. As is true of most people, supervisors have a need to be liked by members of the social groups with which they are associated. Counseling can disrupt the personal relationships which such groups represent. The supervisor often anticipates that this will occur, imagining that the subordinate will react to the session with hostility, or withdraw during the interview into a shell and thereafter ignore the supervisor's presence except when given direct orders. Such reactions by subordinates are not uncommon, and, in fear of that, the supervisor may avoid the discussion altogether.

Avoiding the discussion, however, will only result in the problem and the potential confrontation becoming worse. Counseling is an indispensable aspect of a supervisor's job which, if accomplished effectively, can resolve problems in a positive manner and ultimately help to strengthen the relationship between the supervisor and the subordinate.

It would be dishonest to assure any supervisor that there are techniques which will avoid the unpleasant aspects of counseling in every case. Like any aspect of supervision, counseling involves authority over and responsibility for the actions of other employees. It is precisely this authority over others' behavior that produces the potential conflict; however, such conflict can be minimized.

The written assignment for week six of the BU 461 course is a written counseling session in which students must demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the skills, techniques, resources, and other information taught within the class and apply this knowledge to an employee counseling session (must be fictitious). To ensure maximum points, please adhere to the guidelines set forth below.


Your written counseling session must include the following:

(Please address in paragraph form)

I. A written analysis of the problem presented:

Why is the situation a problem?

What steps should have been taken to remediate the situation before reaching this level?

Does the employee know what is supposed to be done and by when?

Does the employee have:

the information needed to do the job?

the skills needed to do the job?

the resources needed to do the job?

Have I adequately defined the job performance expectations?

Does the problem have an adverse effect on:

the employee?

the co-workers/team?

the unit?

the agency?

myself as a supervisor?

Are any obstacles beyond the employee’s control getting in the way?

Have I been inadvertently rewarding poor performance by my silence or behavior?

Is anyone else exhibiting the same problem?

Is there a pattern with this employee?

After addressing the above issues, it is then necessary for you to include:

II. A follow-up counseling memo that would be given to the employee after the counseling session.

Generally, a memo is both appropriate and necessary when: 1) previous counseling has failed to result in improvement; 2) you do not have confidence that the employee will correct the improper behavior without further encouragement; 3) the seriousness of the situation requires documentation that the session was held; and/or, 4) a multi-part plan for improvement was discussed during the session and the memo serves as written confirmation and a reminder of the plan.

When writing the counseling memo, the following guidelines should be followed:

Write the memo to the employee.

Be concise and clear.

The memo is a summary of your counseling session. Do not include other matters in the memo which were not discussed during the session.

Include the following sections:

A statement of the reason for and the date, time and place of the meeting. (Be as complete as possible in describing the problem.)

The employee's response to your concerns. This is important as it demonstrates to the employee that you were actually listening during the counseling session.

The manner in which the employee will seek to improve performance.

Provisions for follow-up consultations.

Do not characterize the memo as discipline or as a penalty.

The tone of the memo should be supportive and factual. Do not write it in a punitive or derogatory manner.

Show on the memo the names of those persons who will receive a copy of the memo. Include personal history folder.

The memo should be correct memo form

Your written counseling session will be graded on the following:

Clarity (have you addressed all required parts of section I)?

Completeness (have you addresses all required parts of section II)?

Conciseness (has your memo addressed the following)?

Did you clearly explain to the employee the facts of the situation?

Did you CLEARLY explain the gap between current performance and "expected performance"?

Did the employee indicate they understood the gap?

Did you get the employee to agree that a performance problem exists?

Did the employee ask enough questions to get employee to identify the cause of the problem and agree that change is necessary?

Did you identify good business reasons why the change must be made?

Did you list the consequences that could occur if the change is not made?

Did you get the employee’s agreement to take specific actions to improve his/her performance?

Please select any one of the following scenarios as the situation for your written counseling session.

A written counseling session on any other scenario will not be graded. It must be from either one of the following:

Looking at pornography on the Internet during company time. Your employee was recently promoted to a new position without having been properly trained. As a result, your employee cannot keep up with fellow coworkers in the same position.

Preaching to coworkers their beliefs in Christianity and why other coworkers should go to church and Bible study. Your employee is an associate Pastor at his church and tries to recruit new members to his congregation while at work. He is an average level employee working on an assembly line.

Can't read, trying to hide it. Your employee is a safety inspector at an auto plant. She is an outstanding employee, but constantly seeks other workers to help finish her reports.

Falls asleep on the job. Your employee is a student attending college at night with 3 kids and a wife at home. He is a production assistant responsible for layout and print copy for the local newspaper.

Bad breath & body odor. Your employee is an aging man who is the assistant manager in the customer service department. He has been with the organization for over 25 years.

Won’u t wear company uniforms because of religious reasons. Your employee is an atheist who has problems wearing the truck driver uniform for his job because a cross is part of the company logo. He also has a problem with wearing a uniform in general because he feels it represents him to others as being a member of an inferior social class.

Coming down with memory loss. Your employee is 37 years old who has recently undergone radiation therapy for breast cancer. She is responsible for medical records and tracking pharmaceutical prescriptions at the local hospital.

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