Category: Business and Management

Instructions
Grade weight
Each Assignment is worth 6% of your total grade.
Course Objectives:
Discuss the role of e-Business in practical business applications
Identify techniques and tools that can be used to evaluate the driving forces of e-Business
Assess e-Business influence on businesses and how it provides a competitive advantage
Prompt:
Explain why e-Business scenarios are generally more complex than traditional business scenarios. Discuss the interrelationships of the relevant elements, such as business goals, organization of business, and use of information technology.
Instructions:
Response should be approximately 2-3 pages (not counting the cover page and references page), supported with credible references and corresponding in-text citations, all in APA format.
You must submit your assignment as a Word (.doc, .docx) attachment on the Assignments tab for the week. Assignments submitted in any other manner will not be accepted.

To respond to the Discussion, click on the blue hyperlink in the Topic area.
Discussion Instructions
Please refer to the Discussion Grading Rubric and the module, Discussions for details regarding how your performance will be assessed.  NOTE: Please be certain to read the entire discussion assignment since, in some cases, there is more than one question to discuss, respond to, or address. Ensure that you have answered the entire question.
Initial Post
This week’s discussion is a case analysis of Smithfield Custom Furniture developed specifically for this course. Your posting should answer the questions posed using this week’s course materials to support your answers. It is important to write concisely and to follow the detailed instructions provided below.  Include in-text citations and references in a reference list.    
Case Discussion  
SMITHFIELD’S CUSTOM FURNITURE
It is 1901. Alicia Smithfield, daughter of the founder of Smithfield Custom Furniture, just inherited the company. She is the only surviving heir to the furniture empire her father built.  
Headquartered in upstate New York, the company has grown significantly over the past 60 years. Began in a shed built next to his log cabin, Jonas Smithfield’s quality furniture developed a huge following among New York City’s wealthiest residents.
After being educated in the best business schools in Europe and America, Alicia has run the business side-by-side with her father for the past 15 years. When there were many issues confronting the business, a tree being felled took an unexpected route and brought Jonas’ life to a surprising end.
The company had just moved to a facility large enough to house its workers: 10 carpenters; 5 furniture designers; 5 wood finishers (varnish and dye experts); 10 machine operators to assist with the various equipment needed to cut the wood into various designs, polish and sand the wood; 5 mechanics to keep the vehicles (5 trucks) and boats (7) that transported wood from upstate New York and Canada to the work area in good repair; 15 lumberjacks who cut wood in nearby areas and moved it downriver by boat or over the rugged highway by truck; and 5 office personnel who assisted with filing, invoicing, drafting and responding to correspondence, handling customer inquiries, and performing other necessary office functions. More than half of these employees were hired in the past 5 years.
Alicia’s Big Issues
The major issues confronting Alicia Smithfield are these:  
(1) The furniture manufacturing functions are very disorganized. It is not clear how to best organize these functions. For example, the varnish and dye experts each use a different method to complete their tasks.  
(2) The production schedule is a mess. It is not clear which projects should be completed first to ensure products are being delivered to customers on time. 
(3) The lumberjacks, both cutting trees down and shipping them by truck or boat, differ on the best methods to perform these tasks. 
(4) Tempers are flaring as a result of the disorganization. The office, clerical, and support workers are rude to each other and can’t seem to act as a cohesive work unit.
(5) While the company is financially successful, as it has grown from a small family-owned business to a large and complex enterprise, the organizational structure has not kept pace. Few formal rules exist, and the keeping and maintenance of records are haphazard.  
(6) Employees are feeling overworked and losing satisfaction in the work they are doing. They believe their basic needs are not being addressed.
Alicia’s Proposed Issue Solutions 
Alicia Smithfield is familiar with all of the contributors (e.g., Weber, Gilbreath, Taylor, among others) to the management theory you have read about this week. She has decided to hire six (6) of those contributors to management theory from the week’s readings as consultants. (We shall now refer to those contributors (e.g., Weber, Gilbreath, Taylor, among the others) in this week’s readings as “consultants.”)  
Each of the six (6) consultants selected will be assigned to solve only one of the six (6) issues listed above. Alicia’s problem is that she is unclear as to which of the six (6) contributors selected from the week’s reading to be her consultants are best matched to solve each of the six (6) specific issues listed above.   
Your Task for Your Initial Post 
You are to answer four (4) of the above-mentioned six (6) issues identified by Alicia Smithfield. Specifically, she has asked you to recommend a consultant to solve four of the six issues confronting her. You have been requested to explain to Alicia why you selected the four consultants you chose to solve each of the four selected issues. Each consultant will solve one of the four issues you identified that particular consultant to address. You must explain the major contribution/idea of the consultant selected and how that contribution/idea applies to the specific issue you have recommended that the consultant solve. You must identify the school of thought that each consultant represents.  
Note: You may not use any of the individuals in the readings to solve more than one of the four (4) issues. If a person you select is deceased, do not let that inconvenience stand in your way. You may still use that individual to solve a specific issue.
For research associated with this discussion, you must use course materials only. You must provide in-text citations and references for each of the four (4) issues you select.
Format for Your Initial Post
Use the exact numbers and corresponding headings for your initial post for each of your 4 selections. For example, one student’s post may be numbered 1, 3, 5, 6; another student’s post may be numbered 1, 2, 4, 5; and so forth. Any four of the six issues listed that a student selects to answer will be acceptable.     
Manufacturing Functions are Disorganized 
Production Schedule is a Mess
Lumberjack Disagreement Methods To Cut Trees/Load Boat  
Tempers Flare among Office Support Staff 
Lack of Formal Rules/Record-Keeping Processes  
Basic Needs and Job Satisfaction Overlooked 
Two Options for Your Required Replies to Classmates 
Option 1 is that you find a consultant selection made by a classmate to address a specific issue, as identified by the issue number and description, with which you disagree. You must state why you believe a better consultant should address a particular issue that differs from your classmate’s response. You must state the major idea associated with your choice and why that idea applies to the issue more appropriately. Your reply must be supported with course materials, in-text citations, and references.
Option 2 occurs if you agree with all of a particular classmate’s consultant selections. In that case, you must address one of the remaining two (2) listed issues that your classmates did not answer. You will explain which consultant you think could best address that issue, the school of thought that individual represents, and explain how that individual’s major contribution or idea applies to the specific issue you selected. Your reply must be supported with course materials, in-text citations, and references.
Note: You may use either Option 1 or Option 2 for each different classmate to whom you respond.
Instructions for Responses to Classmates’ Posts 
A response posting should be a minimum of one short paragraph. Word totals for these posts should be in the 75–150-word range. The goal of your response posts is to extend discussions already taking place or pose new possibilities or ideas not previously voiced.  Your goal should be to motivate the group discussion and present a creative approach to the topic.  Do not merely agree or disagree, repeating what a classmate stated or what you have already stated. Explain the ‘why or how’ with supporting evidence and concepts from the course material. Include in-text citations and associated references within a reference list.
How to Do Well in Discussions
Make your initial post responding to the above questions by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. EST.
Comment on at least three of your classmates’ posts by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. EST. 
Posting late may lose you points.
Respond to the specific questions posed in the discussion.
Be sure to base your initial post and responses on course materials, and other scholarly sources.
Write clearly and proofread; errors can lose you points.
Quality of posts, citations, frequency, and timeliness of posts all factor into your discussion grade. 
Participation Rubric

1. What is meant by strategic human resources management in healthcare
Strategic human resources management develops approaches and methods to support the organization’s business strategies and encourage new ideas (Simpson & Fried, 2021).  Human resource management is a new topic for me, but I can imagine that this includes many different activities for this department to oversee and develop. These activities include management, recruitment, and maintaining and developing staff (Simpson & Fried, 2021). The healthcare industry is constantly changing and becoming more complex, requiring human resources to develop strategies that attract successful and adaptable staff (Nafari & Rezaei, 2022). Organizations can remain competitive and provide quality care by developing and maintaining a strategic human resources strategy. 
2. What are the main roles of healthcare professionals in healthcare organizations?
Healthcare professionals are tasked with studying, diagnosing, treating, and preventing human illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments (WHO, 2013). There are hundreds of job titles under the healthcare sector, and many are not directly related to patient care, but are considered supporting roles. Our textbook concentrates on nurses, pharmacists, selected allied health professionals, and healthcare administrators. These categories make up majority of healthcare workforce and are crucial to the industry. With a variety of educational and licensing requirements, healthcare professions are optimizing patient care and overall patient health outcomes. There is a rapid growth in healthcare workforce demand and meeting the needs will involve innovation and arriving at solutions that address effective and efficient healthcare delivery while ensuring highly skilled and educated workforce is stable and growing within the industry.
3. In healthcare, employee discipline needs to be handled quickly and effectively.  Poor performance of an employee may not only decrease patient satisfaction, but it could also be the difference between life and death.
Employee discipline can be based on job performance, poor behavior or detrimental behavior.  A multi-step approach to improving job performance is preferred for the organization.  This will help retain staff that have already been hired instead of starting the process all over again.  An organization can provide additional training tools and motivation to help employees succeed in their positions.  Poor behavior and detrimental behavior are intentional behaviors that would be considered inappropriate in most social situations.  Such as stealing and workplace violence.  Termination is the best course of action for these behaviors (Fried & Fottler, 2015).
Employee discipline can be difficult to do for many reasons.  The behavior is often not addressed in a timely manner, previous performance ratings are inaccurate, and or policies are not being followed.  Supervisors may also not want to create conflict with the employee.  Executives can help reduce these outcomes by providing regular supervisory training about policies and laws, monitoring human resources activities and providing feedback, and having positive employee relations (Fried & Fottler, 2015).
REPLY 75 WORDS EACH TO DISCUSSION POST.

you will develop your virtual team training module by identifying key resources and drafting content. Keep in mind that you are only developing the 20-minute section or module of your intended training that you identified in Module 3 for the purposes of this course.
slides this week, as it will be determined by your content.
Incorporate at least one activity that aids learners with respect to one or more performance objectives.
Discuss how you have included content that meets the diverse needs of your audience, as well as considerations for the virtual training environment in your slide notes.
Use scholarly citations to attribute sources of information on the slides and in slide notes.
Write detailed slide notes to explain each slide.
Use Rubric. 

the book for the course is Farver, S. (2019). Mainstreaming corporate sustainability: Using proven tools to promote business success (2nd ed.). J. Ross Publishing.
For this assignment, complete Case Study: Economic Responsibility: ING Groep NV, by responding to questions 1 and 2 at the end of the Case Study. You must respond to all prompts in the question for full credit.
Your response must:
Be at least two pages and provide and in depth response the question,
Use APA formatting throughout (no title page needed),
Have a minimum of two references (with corresponding citations).  

Case 1: Take It or Leave It
Both John Johnson and Martin LeBlanc are employed as systems software engineers for a budding social media company with offices in San Jose, California and Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, John and Martin studied at the same university and were in several courses together. Both were hired last year at about the same time, assigned to work in the Atlanta office. John accepted the company’s salary offer of $65,000 and Martin negotiated a slightly higher starting salary. Both salaries were competitive with starting pay for software engineers employed in Atlanta.
After six months on the job, Martin’s manager, Beth Liu, called him into her office to discuss his early job performance. Beth lavished Martin with praise, citing his technical skills prowess, for taking the initiative to recommend system improvements, and his demonstrated ability to work well with others. Of course, Martin was pleased and he expressed satisfaction in his role and he promised to make more impressive contributions to the company.
Beth said that she was pleased to hear Martin’s thoughts and indicated that she looked forward to his further contributions. Then, she went on to say that a software engineer in the San Jose office left the company and asked him to fill the vacancy. Martin was excited to hear the news because he had hoped to work in the San Jose office one day.
Before leaving Beth’s office, Martin asked her to confirm his new salary rate. Beth was puzzled by the question because Martin would be assuming the same role in San Jose. She reminded him of this fact and indicated that his salary would remain the same. Following company policy, Martin could expect to receive future pay increases based on performance or promotion into a higher-ranking job. His excitement turned to disappointment and he had second thoughts about moving to San Jose and began wondering whether he should take it or leave it.
Analyze the Case Study “Take it or Leave it” on page 51-52 of your textbook. Prepare a paper answering the following questions:
Why did Martin become disappointed?
Do you think that Beth’s decision was reasonable? Why or why not?
What are some factors that Beth should consider when transferring employees from Atlanta to San Jose?  From San Jose to Atlanta?
Support your analysis with at least two recent scholarly sources to substantiate your insights.
The analysis should be presented in APA format.
The analysis should be 3-5 pages in length, excluding the title page, abstract and references.

Write an 8-10 page research paper (excluding the title and reference pages)
on the topic of your choice selected in Week 2. By this time, you
should have submitted your first 5 pages for grading and feedback. Once
you receive feedback, make revisions accordingly and combine with the
last five pages of your paper.

The company I chose is TESLA
You can also refer to Mergent Onlineand Business Insights (GALE)for more information on how to use these databases.
Using the same publicly traded company you used in the Environmental Scanning Interactive Assignment, TESLA, research the company online by accessing the Mergent database. Also, access the Business Insights (GALE), which offers information on global companies and industries. The database includes SWOT reports, market share data, financial reports, case studies, business news, and company comparison charts.
You may always research using credible online sources of corporate financial information; just be sure that wherever you obtain financial information, you cite your source.
For this discussion, you will look at the financial statements for the company you selected and, using the previous quarter’s financial data, interpret the data and propose a budget for the next quarter based on your current and prior analysis of company performance.
Complete the budget template using the Operating Budget Template Download Operating Budget Template: Template will be provided
List the current sales, discounts and allowances, net sales, margins, operating costs, and earnings before and after taxes. Include a minimum of two financial ratios (below) in your analysis. 
Prepare the next quarter’s budget based on your interpretation of past data.
Include at least three of the following types of relevant financial ratios in your analysis
Profitability Ratio 
Liquidity Ratio 
Solvency Ratio 
Valuation Ratio 
Leverage Ratio
In your initial post, provide a brief description of your company, a summary of your Operating Budget, and a rationale supporting suggested budgetary changes. Attach your Operating Budget Template to your initial post for your instructor and peers’ review.

Overview
Using the Communications Template, identify two overall issues that are present in the final project case study that can be addressed using internal and external communications. For each issue, note the red flags that contribute to the issue and list those factors in the first column in the template. For each factor, identify potential communications that would need to be developed to address that component of the issue, the audience that would need to be reached with the communication, and the objective for the communication.
Prompt
From this template, select one of the two issues to focus on for the purpose of your final project, and develop the ideas you have noted for Milestone One.
Use the communications planning resources in this module to assist you in completing the template.
For each overall issue you identified in the final project case study, complete the following fields:
Contributing factors to issue
Communication messages and channels required to address issue
Audience for communication (internal, external, or both)
Communication objectives
Note: You will select one of the two issues from this template for the final project but will focus on both issues for this assignment.

Prepare income statement financial statement. Explain FIVE accounting concepts that are used in the preparation of financial statement. More info in the attached file.