Go to the Geico Website to read the “Total Rewards Program” at http://careers.geico.com/working_at_geico/total_rewards_program.

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

 

1. Determine which facets of the Geico total rewards program align with the five (5) top advantages of a total rewards program outlined in Chapter 2 of the textbook and discuss your reasoning.

 

2. Create a strategy for ensuring that the Geico plan addresses all of the advantages.

 

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication of Geico’s total rewards program based upon the Website’s descriptions of the benefits. Recommend two (2) areas for improvement.

 

4. Assuming employees are unhappy with the current plan, offer two (2) improvements or changes to Geico’s total rewards program.

 

5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

 

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

 

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

 

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

 

• Define total rewards and describe the advantages of a total rewards approach.

 

• Analyze an organization’s strategy, workforce, operating environment, and key stakeholders to identify critical factors in designing a total rewards strategy.

 

• Evaluate the elements of a total rewards communication program.

 

• Use technology and information resources to research issues in total rewards.

 

• Write clearly and concisely about total rewards using proper writing mechanics

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

Transformational Change Management Plan

You will create an entire Transformational Change Management Plan for a medium-sized public company that has lost business to a competitor that has chosen to outsource much of its production operations. The company has been based in a small Midwestern town, it is one of the largest employers, and it has an excellent reputation for employee welfare. It is now planning to do the very same offshoring, which will involve large lay-offs of long-term employees.

The Key Assignment is a comprehensive transformational change management plan that will combine tasks from Weeks 2–5.

The project deliverables are as follows:

• Week 2: Introduction
• Week 2: What is driving the need for this transformational change?
• Week 3: Theories of Change Management
• Week 4: Communication Plan
• Week 5: Implementation Plan

Create an APA title page and the following sections:

• Week 2:
  • Introduction (250-300 words) You will research and find an example of a firm that is going through the transformational change of offshoring much of its production activities. The first part of the plan will be the Introduction. Context for the introduction includes the following:
    • What is offshoring?
    • How were the stakeholders affected?
    • What initiated the change?
    • How well has it been received or accepted, and why?
  • What is driving the need for this transformational change? (300-500 words)
    • Why is this considered a transformational change?
    • Why can the firm not just keep doing what it has been doing?
    • What is management’s role in the transformational change?
    • Are there easier alternatives to accomplish the goal of remaining competitive?

This project is for someone who is familiar with the online Capsim Business Simulatioin program. Basically you will be taking two Capsim Simulation practice rounds. After each round, you will be taking a quiz on the business decisions you have made. You must be familiar with this Capsim Simulation and can provide me with some assurance that you are familiar and can complete the program.

Due in Week 2 and worth 30 points

Answer the following questions in the space provided below:

Explain the importance of variation to health-care organizations and answer the following questions.

1. What might be the key processes for health-care organizations?
2. What are the potential common causes of variation that would have an impact on the key processes of health-care organizations?
3. What special causes might be more important than the others?
4. How might health-care organizations’ business environment be dynamic and change over time?

Harley-Davidson: External and Internal Analysis

Instructions for this assignment: Perform all of the elements listed below.

This assignment has you complete two parts of a strategic business plan. To see how those parts fit into a full business plan, click here for a strategic business plan outline.

Part I – Analysis of the External Environment

As part of the Strategic Business Plan, you have been asked to:

• Identify and analyze the major driving forces for change in the external environment of the motorcycle industry.
• Analyze the dynamics of competition using Porter’s Five Forces Model of Competition. Correctly assess the dynamics of competition.
• Provide at least three statistics about the size of the motorcycle industry such as revenue, growth rate, number of units sold by manufacturer/country, etc.
• Summarize the strategic issues firms in this industry face and identify their biggest threats.

This section should be titled “The Analysis of H-D’s External Environment.”

Part II – Internal Environment Analysis

Financial

Gather the financial information necessary to do a complete ratio analysis and the Balance Score Card (BSC) key metrics information.

If you were going to create a BSC, what would be the key metrics you would measure in each of the four BSC areas:

• Financial
• Customer
• Internal Business Process
• Learning and Growth

Perform a ratio analysis using H-D’s five-year financial performance. Interpret the meaning of the ratios and financial performance.

This section should be titled “The Analysis of H-D’s Current Strategy: Two Views.” Be sure to include the ratio analysis. You may also include other graphics to support your narrative.

Competitors

Based on your analysis, you must decide which two competitors present the biggest competitive threat to H-D.

Perform a financial ratio analysis for the competitors after looking at trends in financial performance over five years, and compare the trends to industry averages.

Be sure you have a clear ranking of the industries’ competitors.

This section should be titled “Competitor Analysis.” Be sure to include the financial ratio analysis. You may also include other graphics to support your narrative.

Scenario:

Management has reviewed your work from two weeks ago about how the employees’ low job motivation may affect the company internally and externally and determined that there is sufficient evidence to support an organizational change. It has asked you to recommend changes that will help to boost employee job motivation.

Recall that a survey showed that job motivation among employees was lower than average, with complaints such as:

• My job is so boring!
• My boss micromanages me but never tells me how I’m doing.
• I’ve been in my position for seven to fifteen years, but I am never allowed to provide any input about making the work better.

Write a paper in which you:

• Defend at least two organizational changes and explain how these changes will improve job motivation in the workforce. Support your recommendations by citing the theories covered in the readings or your own research.
• Assess potential conflicts that may arise due to the changes, including why you anticipate these conflicts.
• Justify a change implementation plan for leading the change initiatives and helping the organization overcome any resistance to the changes.
• Justify an appropriate communication plan that announces the changes and continues through the change management process.

Submission Details:

• Present a 6- to 7-page paper in a Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.
• On a separate page, cite all sources using APA format.

1. Watch this video “I, Smartphone”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByZgnIP0zJ4OTVdubjFLMEhZS28/view?usp=sharing

How does this clip illustrate Adam Smith’s concept of the invisible hand? ($1,000)
2. What is meant by the index of openness? How is it calculated? Note: use the formula provided in topic 1 in your answer (same formula is in chapter 1 of the textbook). What does it tell us about an economy? ($1,000)
3. In general, are larger countries more open or closed? What about smaller countries? Provide an example of a country which is large (as defined by the index of openness) and one which is small. ($2,000)
4. Is the following statement true or false? A country’s index of openness can never exceed 100 in value. Explain your answer in 2-3 sentences. ($1,000)
5. In class, we looked at the geographic pattern of merchandise trade in 1965 and 2010. Use these figures to answer the following questions:

(A) What has happened to Asia’s export share? Why? ($750)

(B) What has happened to North America’s export share? How important is America as a trading partner for other countries? ($750)

(C) What has happened to the export share of Latin America & Africa? ($750)

(D) How important is geography when explaining trade patterns? ($750)
6. Which nation, according to the World Trade Organization report (2014), is the biggest merchandise trader in the world (including exports & imports)? What factors help explain this? You can find the report in the homework 1 folder. ($1,000)
7. How important is world trade in services to the world economy? Which country is the largest exporter/importer of services according to the World Trade Organization report (2014)? What factors explain this? You can find the report in the homework 1 folder. ($1,000)
8. The following podcast comes from NPR’s “Planet Money” series. The podcast is about outsourcing: “In A Twist, Tech Companies Are Outsourcing Computer Work To … Humans” If you click the link below, you can listen to the podcast & read a transcript.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/04/420097029/in-a-twist-tech-companies-are-outsourcing-computer-work-to-humans

Why are tech companies outsourcing computer work to humans? ($2,000)

Importance of Reputation Management

Write a paper that traces the history and development of PR in the United States. Pay special attention to each of the distinct stages.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

• Write between 750 – 1,250 words (approximately 3 – 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style, see example below.
• Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
• Include cover page and reference page.
• At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.
• No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.
• Use at least three references from outside the course material, one reference must be from EBSCOhost. Text book, lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted toward the three reference requirement.
• Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list on a reference page in APA style.

References must come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, CNN, online newspapers such as, The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc. Sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. are not acceptable for academic writing.

DST Systems Case Study

Using the example situation below complete the following Training Needs Analysis (question set below) and in addition to answering the Training Needs Analysis questions, write a one page double spaced summary over how the information collected would benefit a trainer and why a trainer would use this process.

DST Systems: Document Manager Project

• The Application Analyst (AA) department manager, Lori Williams, called the training department and asked to sit down and discuss the new product they were rolling out to all the company’s AAs, world wide, and what training could be offered starting on August 11, 2009 and on going as they were looking to roll out Document Manager on October 2, 2009. This product would effect 2500 people.
• Lori Williams met with two trainers Sarah Ward and Caroline Smith. Lori explained that all of the AAs were creating the same documentation over and over again, but had to save it to their own desktops and were unable to share the information because they didn’t have a document repository. Document Manager was going to fix this problem. All of the AAs could then share documentation. Document Manager too would have a template in it for the AAs to use. Document Manager would make the AA’s work much easier and quicker. The AAs were asked by upper management to be more effective with their documentation. Lori wanted to train all 2500 employees world wide before Document Manger went out to the company on 10/2/09.
• Sarah and Caroline asked Lori what the AAs were using now to type up their documentation and what would be different with Document Manager. Lori explained that now AAs used Word Perfect 2001, however Document Manager would use Microsoft Word 2007. Due to this huge change Lori believes every employee effected needs to come to a training class that should last at least 2 hours long, if not longer. Since the training would have to be on a computer, the training departments computer classroom’s only hold 15 people per class. Lori also said that she would like to see each employee pass a test using Word 2007 and Document Manager before attaining access to the new programs. She went on to explain that she would also like to have online training for Document Manager and Word 2007 available for all employees via their intranet site. Lori also told Sarah and Caroline that upper management had not yet decided how to reach the global employees for this training. Times were tight and they didn’t want to pay for the employees to travel or for Sarah and Caroline to travel. Lori said that she trusted Sarah and Caroline would have the right answer for upper management.
• Lori also gave Sarah and Caroline some background on the AAs. She told them that for the most part the AA department’s abilities and familiarity with computers and software was exceptional. Lori had taken over that department only 2 years ago, but she explained how she weeded out the non performing employees and replaced them with hard working, smart, efficient ones. Sarah and Caroline were excited about working with this audience.

 

Training Need Assessment

• Department:
• Date:
• Department Supervisor:
• Desired Program:

Goals

1. What organizational goal is driving this training?
2. What will the benefit be?
3. What is the skill gap?
4. What competencies (knowledge, skills, or attitudes) will this program need?
5. What evaluation will be used to measure the level of goal achievement?

Target Population

1. Who will be trained?
2. What is the estimated class size?
3. How many classes will there be and how long will this training last?
4. What are the knowledge and skill prerequisites?

Type of Training

1. What type of program is being proposed?
2. What media, if any will be used in the training?

Alternatives

1. What will happen if we do not delivering the training?
2. What are the restrictions or limitations for delivering a program?
3. What other methods may be used to reach the goal (include limitations and advantages)?