Archive for year: 2023

Assignment 1: Strategy, Planning, and Selection

Assume for this assignment that you are being highly considered for a director-level HR management position for a best-in-class national retailer. You are in the final phase of the interview process and must respond to the interview panel regarding specific questions and scenarios that will help them determine if you are a good fit for the new role. The company’s culture is centered on the effective development of strategy, plans, and selection criteria aimed at building and sustaining a competitive and profitable organization. It will be extremely important that you respond with a strategic mindset in order to convince the organization you are able to help them ensure the execution of the business strategy.

Write a six to seven (6-7) page paper in which you:

•Analyze different types of strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, and focus/niche) and select which one you would deem more appropriate for an “efficiency-minded” retail organization and explain your rationale. How would the selected strategy ultimately affect how HR does its job?

•Examine the four (4) approaches to job design/redesign and provide an example (not a definition) of each. Then, make a case to the interviewing panel on the importance of effective job design applications in supporting the overall strategic goals of the organization.

•Consider challenges and constraints associated with recruiting workers and identify and discuss at least two (2) issues. What advice would you give to ease your selected issues? Be specific.

•List and describe 2–3 candidate selection process ideas that might add value and overall effectiveness to the process. HINT: http://www.selectinternational.com/blog/bid/147051/5-Tips-for-Designing-an-Effective-Employee-Selection-System. Also, what problems should HR and management teams avoid during the selection process?

•Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

a.Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

b.Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment (with running head), the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.

c.Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length. Use the Strayer University Library at https://research.strayer.edu to locate additional sources to support your work.

The specific course outcomes associated with this assignment are:

•Assess the strategic role of human resource management and the components that provide a competitive advantage to the organization.

•Examine the human resource management functions of recruiting and selecting, and their importance to business strategy.

 

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? Order now!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!

Question 1

New customers may be turned over to account-servicing salespeople referred to as

Question options:

order-getters.

order-takers.

pioneers.

hunters.

Question 2

Which of the five personal selling approaches involves the highest level of adaptive selling?

Question options:

Stimulus response

Need satisfaction

Consultative selling

Mental states

Question 3

Which of the following is not one of the steps of the ADAPT questioning methodology?

Question options:

Assess the buyer’s situation.

Discover the buyer’s needs.

Activate the buying process.

Transition to the close.

Question 4

Salespeople who focus on gaining new customers are sometimes referred to as

Question options:

hunters.

farmers.

missionary salespeople.

detailers.

Question 5

Key presentation skills include all of the following except

Question options:

explaining the features and benefits of the product.

demonstrating the product.

producing additional information to reinforce claims made.

using audiovisual sales aides.

Question 6

Which of the following personal selling approaches focuses most on the buyer’s needs and strategic priorities?

Question options:

Stimulus response

Need satisfaction

Mental states

Consultative selling

Question 7

_______ is the process of helping customers reach their strategic goals by using the products, services, and expertise of the sales organization.

Question options:

Need satisfaction selling

Stimulus response selling

Contingency selling

Consultative selling

Question 8

_______ are salespeople who support the sales effort by providing information and performing other supplemental services.

Question options:

Hunters

Pioneers

Order-takers

Missionary salespeople

Question 9

________ is essentially a sequential approach to selling in which the salesperson leads the customer through stages in the buying process.

Question options:

Stimulus response selling

Mental states selling

Need satisfaction selling

Problem-solving selling

Question 10

Which one of the following is not a stage in the SPIN selling technique?

Question options:

Investigate the customer’s situation.

Determine the customer’s problem.

Discuss implications of the problem if it is left unattended.

Follow up the sale with additional product offerings.

Question 11

To be successful at trust-building, research indicates that salespeople should demonstrate all of the following characteristics except

Question options:

salesperson orientation.

competence.

dependability.

honesty.

Question 12

According to the trust-based relationship selling process framework, “discovering prospect’s needs” is a part of which component of the framework?

Question options:

Selling foundations

Selling strategy based on customer needs and value

Initiating customer relationships

Developing customer relationships

Question 13

As ________, salespeople stimulate sales cycles and help customers reach buying decisions as soon as reasonably possible.

Question options:

financial contributors

economic agents

change agents

communications agents

Question 14

The problem-solving view of personal selling is an extension of

Question options:

need satisfaction selling.

stimulus response selling.

contingency selling.

mental states selling.

Question 15

Which of the following statements pertaining to the stimulus response form of personal selling is true?

Question options:

The buyer takes a dominant role in the sales dialogue.

The stimulus response sales strategy can’t be used with a canned sales presentation.

The stimulus response sales strategy must be conducted in person because <br /> of the necessity for visual aids.

Key selling points can be sequenced in a logical order and likely <br /> questions and objections can be addressed before they’re voiced by the buyer.

Question 16

The generation of new business for the selling firm is associated with which type of salespeople?

Question options:

Hunters and pioneers

Order-getters and order-takers

Missionaries and detail salespeople

Pioneers and franchisers

Question 17

The mental states approach to personal selling assumes that buyers must be led through four mental states, which occur in this order:

Question options:

interest, attention, desire, action.

attention, desire, interest, action.

curiosity, interest, conviction, purchase.

attention, interest, desire, action.

Question 18

________ support the sales effort by setting up point-of-purchase displays, rotating stock, and keeping store personnel informed about new products and sales promotions.

Question options:

Order-getters

Order-takers

Missionary salespeople

Merchandisers

Question 19

In this selling position, the salesperson, sometimes referred to as a pioneer, is responsible for

Question options:

deciding which new territories to enter.

handling existing customer accounts.

answering routine customer inquiries.

adding new customers.

Question 20

Need satisfaction personal selling is based on the notion that

Question options:

customers need to be told what they want.

the customer needs to know what products the firm offers.

salespeople should be friendly because customers need to feel that they’re appreciated.

customers will be motivated to buy to satisfy particular needs.

 

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? Order now!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!

Performance Management System

Chapter 8-Case Study 2-Performance Management System Helps Freeport-McMoRan Switch Strategic Gears

Answer the following questions:

• Why did Freeport-McMoRan need a performance management system? How might it have helped the company adjust its strategy?
• Do you think a pen-and-paper performance management system could have been as effective as the web-based system Freeport-McMoRan adopted? Why or why not?

The following requirements must be met:

• Write between 1,000 – 1,500 words using Microsoft Word in APA 6th edition style.
• Use an appropriate number of references to support your position, and defend your arguments. The following are examples of primary and secondary sources that may be used, and non-credible and opinion based sources that may not be used.
  1. Primary sources such as government websites (United States Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Census Bureau, The World Bank), peer reviewed and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library) and Google Scholar.
  2. Secondary and credible sources such as CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, trade journals, and publications in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library).
  3. Non-credible and opinion based sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. should not be used.
• Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased statements, information, etc.) in the paper and list each source on a reference page using APA style. An overview of APA 6th edition in-text citations, formatting, reference list, and style is provided here.

 

Case Study 2Performance Management System Helps Freeport-McMoRan Switch Strategic Gears

What do you do when your organization needs to completely turn around its strategy due to a changing marketplace or for competitive reasons? Situations such as these are common in today’s fast-paced business environment. How does a firm manage drastic changes like this? A good performance management system can help.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold is a case in point. The company, which is based in Phoenix, is the second-largest copper mining company in the world. It employs approximately 35,000 workers and has mining operations that span five different continents. But it wasn’t a poor market condition that caused Freeport-McMoRan to shift gears. It was a booming one. During much of the 1990s and 2000s, the price of copper was low—only about 75 cents per pound—making mining less profitable than it had been in the past. Mining a large amount of copper therefore became less of a priority than keeping costs low for Freeport-McMoRan.

However, after the price of copper jumped sharply upward and hit $4.50 a pound, Freeport-McMoRan realized it needed to change its strategy—and fast. It needed to ramp up production and invest in new people and equipment in order to mine as much copper as possible while its price was high. The question became how to implement the change. Compounding the task was the fact that each mine was run separately. The firm’s top managers did not even know how its employees were organized at the separate mines, let alone what their goals were or the metrics they were expected to achieve. The company had also acquired a rival mining company twice its size—Phelps Dodge—which made coordinating the performance of its people and operations even more difficult. In 2013, Freeport-McMoRan went to into a completely new line of business—oil and gas—making the coordination even more difficult.

To align the goals of everyone in the company and get all of its various mines performing at top capacity, Freeport-McMoRan needed a new performance management system. The system would hopefully enable the company to quickly implement and monitor the changes needed, while giving it the agility to change strategies again if or when the price of copper dropped.

Many of the employees who work in its mines and oilfields do not use computers regularly on the job, so Freeport-McMoRan needed a system that was easy to use. For this reason, the company adopted a web-based performance management system that employees could use at home. Initially, the firm rolled out the system to 500 employees as a pilot program. When it proved to be successful, the entire company began to use the system.

The software keeps everyone in an organization focused on a company’s most important goals, which can have a strong impact on the firm’s financial performance. It also helps organizations measure the contributions of its employees and to nurture, motivate, and reward employees based on their achievements. “Managers need reliable real-time data and pragmatic e-tools to measure, identify, analyze, and understand their organization’s people capability—and what capability is needed to compete in the future,” explains Jonathon Hogg, with PA Consulting Group, an IT and management consulting firm. The performance system, along with the company’s strategic move into oil and gas seems to be working for Freeport-McMoRan. In 2013, the company posted a 19 percent return to shareholders, despite copper prices plummeting again.

Questions

1. Why did Freeport-McMoRan need a performance management system? How might it have helped the company adjust its strategy?
2. Do you think a pen-and-paper performance management system could have been as effective as the web-based system Freeport-McMoRan adopted? Why or why not?

 

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? Order now!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!

Below are each of the Core learning outcomes (CLOs) for the course. You are to show evidence of your knowledge of each CLO by providing research of at least three resources per topic.  Only one resource can be the text.  In addition, you will need to provide two organizational examples through your research for each core learning objective. Please be sure your resources and research include the following information related to each topic. ALL Topics must be included in the research work.

Directions

Topic: Include all 5 topics/learning objectives to research.

Length and format:

· The paper should be approximately 7-10 pages in length excluding the cover page.

· Each new topic/core learning objective should be clearly noted.  For example, you might bold and underline a new topic you begin to discuss.

· References should be listed at the end of each topic and all 5 topics should be 1.5 to 2 pages in length with 12 point font, double-spaced with one-inch margins. Use the APA format for all references.

Originality: At least 75% of the verbiage in your offering for each topic must be in your own words. Up to 25% can be the words of others taken from either the text or from the articles you used in support of your offering. You may paraphrase (which is taking the words of others and restating them in your own words – see Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Links to an external site.), or you may quote the words of others as long as you give proper credit (see APA link below). Be careful not to plagiarize which is using the words of others and presenting them as your own. Any verbiage presented in your offering that is not properly cited or given appropriate credit will be deemed as you presenting those words as your own.

Late Assignments: I want to make sure we are absolutely clear on this, so there are no misunderstandings down the line. Last minute emergencies, technological problems (computer crashes), etc. will not be grounds for any more time than the time you have now to get the assignment uploaded. Be sure to back up and save a copy of your Assignment in case you or we experience technical problems.

Submission: Assignments must be uploaded as a single file attachment (no multiple files will be accepted). I will be able to accept any file saved in Rich Text Format (.rtf) format or Word doc format. This is a 300-level (junior level) class ~~ I expect at least 300-level (junior level) work. You will be graded on what you submit (see grading rubric).

References: Each topic/core learning objective review should contain at least two to three appropriate quotes and citations and two examples from organizations that support the 5 core learning objectives and topics individually.  This requires research and I ask that you utilize the Park Online Library and reference these examples of industries performing these functions. If you need support on using the APA style, please visit the following websites.

·

· Online Writing Lab  (Links to an external site.)

Content: When writing your papers, be sure to include applicable excerpts from the article (in quotes and referenced) that you use in support of your statements.  Do not forget to include the organizational/industrial examples for each section and CLO.

Grading

See the Schedule page for the rubric.

Due Date

· by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, CT

Research Topics (Complete all 5)

1. CLO#1: Develop human resource strategies to support a competitive advantage and deal with change, unions, technology, diversity, globalization, and HR legislation. List and discuss three of these topics in depth using two organizational examples of successful implementation of HR strategies for each topic. For example, you may choose unions, diversity, and globalization.  This will require 2 organizational examples for topic and a total of 3 references.  Only one can be the text. This should be at least a page and a half using the font and margin criteria mentioned under Notes in the following section.

2. CLO#2: Examine methodologies on how a firm’s human resources influence organizational performance improvement and success. Here you will discuss how human resources interacts with the entire organization to assure there is performance success. For example, you may want to discuss appraisal and performance drivers, designing competitive advantages, performance in a global market, and human resource strategies designed to align human resource skills with current and future needs.  Do not forget your two required organizational examples and the three references. One can be the text. This should be at least a page and a half using the font and margin criteria mentioned under Notes in the following section.

3. CLO#3: Demonstrate knowledge of staffing and human resource analysis. This can include topics that assure the right people are hired for the various jobs.  Discuss two to three topics such as job analysis and design, employee recruitment and selection, human resource management systems and show two organizational examples of successful HR implementation for these topics.  Remember to include 3 references (one can be the text).  This should be at least a page and a half using the font and margin criteria mentioned under Notes in the following section

4. CLO#4: Critique the factors influencing worker motivation that are under management control. Discuss two to three topics such as the reward system, organizational climate and cultures, how work & jobs are designed and structured and leadership styles.  Do not forget your two required organizational examples and the three references per topic. One can be the text. This should be at least a page and a half using the font and margin criteria mentioned under Notes in the following section.

5. CLO#5: Investigate the role of management succession and employee career development. Discuss two to three topics such as training and development, talent management, developing leadership talent, succession planning, and employee retention.  This will require 2 organizational examples for topic and a total of 3 references.  Only one can be the text. This should be at least a page and a half using the font and margin criteria mentioned under Notes in the following section.

 

Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? Order now!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!