Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Week #8 – Field Education I

This week we will be discussing Use of Self within your assignments and in our synchronous class session.  Items that we did not review last week we will review this week. 

Attendance: You must attend nine (9) seminar sessions. Remember, your participation in seminar involves you focusing your attention, attentively listening, posing and answering questions to your peers and professors. Refrain from engaging in non-seminar-related activities (e.g. text messaging, checking email, internet surfing, watching tv, conversing with family, friends, or co-workers, etc.).

Assignments Due this Week:

1. Week #8 Blog – Main Post by Day 3 and Response Post by Day 4
2. Week 8, Assignment 2 – Process Recording  – Due Day 7 (Submit under Assignment #2) – See past announcements for the template. Remember, do not alter the template. The template is the paper for this assignment.
3. Looking Ahead: Week #9– Assignment 2, Agency Presentation Submit ppt under Week #9 Assignment #2 in Blackboard.
4. Agency Presentations Continue

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Due Week 4 and worth 150 points

Imagine that you are the clinic manager of an urgent care center. Recently, your center has seen an increase in complaints regarding long wait times, inadequate or incomplete information from staff during visits, and the relatively small number of insurance types accepted at the facility.

Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:

1. Examine at least three (3) examples of quality initiatives that could increase patient satisfaction and potentially reduce healthcare cost. Support your response with examples of the successful application your chosen quality initiatives.
2. Defend your position on the decision to accept Medicare or Medicaid as potential pay sources for your urgent care center. Provide support with at least two (2) examples that illustrate your position.
3. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• This course requires use of new Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow SWS 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:

• Analyze the impact of healthcare financing and health insurance on healthcare access, quality, and cost.
• Determine the factors that affect healthcare quality in healthcare organizations.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in healthcare policy, law, and ethics.
• Write clearly and concisely about healthcare policy and law using proper writing mechanics.

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ECOL203/403 Assignment 1: Age Structure of a Population Using Life Tables Introduction to Life Tables

Before you begin this exercise (or read any further) you should:

1. Read Chapter 13 of Attiwill and Wilson (2006), particularly the section on life tables on page 220 – 223.

2. Make sure you have the life_table.xls file from the Assignment 1 folder)

3. Do the Molar Index and Skull aging Tutorial (Assignment 1 folder)

4. Download the Box of Skulls (Assignment 1 folder)

5. It is also advisable to read through this exercise completely before starting on the spreadsheet in excel.

Background to the Data

The Black-striped wallaby, Macropus dorsalis

The black-striped wallaby is a medium-sized macropod (females 7kg; males 16kg) that occurs from northern Queensland to northern NSW. The species is listed as ‘Endangered’ in NSW, but can become overabundant in some parts of Queensland – so wildlife ecologists need to manage their numbers in some regions so that they do not cause over-grazing of livestock pastures, while in other place, the population needs to be stimulated to increase in numbers to prevent them from becoming locally extinct. The wallabies shelter in dense scrub thickets (e.g. Brigalow) by day and graze adjacent pasture or natural grasslands by night. Debra White did her UNE Master of Natural Resource Science on black- striped wallabies at the Brigalow Research Station near Theodore in central Queensland (White 2004). She found that there was a high density of wallabies sheltering in the patches of brigalow by day, and that at night, these animals moved onto pasture, which they grazed heavily. White (2004) also looked at age structure of wallabies at the site by aging skulls she collected, and using these in a life table analysis. We will do a similar exercise in this assignment using skulls collected at the same site used by White (2004), and we will compare our results from the results from Debra White’s much larger dataset.

Molar Progression in Macropods

Molar progression occurs only in the marsupial genera Macropus, Petrogale and Peradorcas (Jackson 2003). These marsupials are among only a relatively few mammals worldwide whose teeth erupt at the posterior end of the jaw, and migrate forward along the jaw during life (the others are the elephants). As the teeth wear down and become less useful for grazing, they have moved sufficiently anterior in the jaw that they can fall out, ‘pushed’ from behind by newly erupted teeth. In this way, macropods can maintain good functioning teeth with high cusps for grazing on tough fibrous grasses throughout life. This ‘molar progression’ is a handy way to age kangaroo and wallaby skulls, and was used to generate the dataset you will use in this assignment to examine the life history parameters of a ‘population’ of black- striped wallabies (Macropus dorsalis) from the Brigalow Research Station in southern Queensland.

Aging of Macropods Using Molar Index (MI)

Molar Index (MI) is calculated by measuring the position of molariform teeth on the upper tooth row relative to a reference line drawn across the skull in line with the anterior limits of the orbits (see Figure 1 below). For convenience, ten stages of molar progression are recognized per tooth, and given decimal notation in tenths. In the example below (Fig 1a), molar M1 has progressed beyond the orbit, while molar M2 is given a score of about 0.7, according to Figure 1b. Therefore, the skull has a molar index (MI) of 1.7. Consulting Table 1 below of published estimates from red-necked wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), a similar-sized macropod to the black- striped wallaby, we see that this animal was around age 2 (in years) when it died.

Figure 1. Skull showing reference line for age determination, and one-tenth division in length for molar teeth of kangaroos and wallabies. Figures from Kirkpatrick (1964), and Jackson (2003).

In this assignment, you will generate age data from the skulls of black-striped wallabies collected in the field, and use them to generate a life table for the population. You will measure these skulls and calculated their molar index, and then convert these into ages for each animal (using Table 1). You can then use those data to generate a life table for the population. Incidentally – the skulls come from animals that died ‘naturally’ – that is, they weren’t culled or harvested. Some might have died of old age; others may have been caught up on a barbwire fence, while a dingo perhaps ate others. In any event, from the age structure of the population, we can determine a profile for the population in terms of average life expectancy, mortality rates, probability of surviving to the next age bracket and so forth. Such tools are useful for the ecologists, because they provide rich demographic data that allows one to determine which individuals should be culled in order to contain or reduce a population that is overabundant, or conversely, whether certain cohorts (age groups) are particularly susceptible to some kind of mortality agent (such as predation) and need to be protected so that the population has the best chance or recovering to more sustainable numbers.

Black-striped wallaby painting by John Gould

Data for the life table analysis Download and open the excel spreadsheet exercise called ‘life_table.xls’ from the Assignment 1 folder on the unit website. Spend a minute looking around this spreadsheet. There are three ‘worksheets’ (clickable tabs at the bottom left of the opened workbook) within the spreadsheet: 1. Molar Index 2. Life Table 3. Data from White (2004)

MI Age (years) <0.8 0

0.9 – 1.6 1 1.7 – 2.1 2 2.2 – 2.5 3 2.6 – 2.7 4 2.8 – 2.9 5 3.0 – 3.1 6 3.2 – 3.3 7

3.4 8 3.5 9 3.6 10 3.7 11 3.8 12 3.9 13 4.0 14 4.1 15 4.2 16 4.3 17 4.4 18+

Table 1: Relationship between molar index (MI) and age (in years) of red- necked wallabies. Equation modified from Kirkpatrick (1965).

The first, Molar Index’, is where you will enter the age data of the population. The second, ‘Life Table’ is where you will calculate the life history parameters of the population. The third worksheet is data from Debra White’s thesis. White examined the demography of wallabies at the Brigalow Research Station in the exact way that we are doing – but because she worked with 667 skulls, where you only have 49 – we might expect her results to be a robust estimate against which you can compare your own. Graphs appearing on the ‘Life Table’ worksheet template already show White’s results for some key life table parameters (take a look at these now – Whites results are in light grey on Graphs A and B). As you complete this exercise, your results will be graphed in red, so you can compare your results to White’s results. STEP 1 – Click the tab to bring up the worksheet labelled ‘Molar Index’. Enter the molar index data you have gathered in the columns labelled ‘MI’ against each of the 49 skulls. While in this worksheet, use Table 1 (above) to determine the age at death for each wallaby, and put that number alongside the molar index value (i.e. Column C) labelled ‘Age’ (Given age as the nearest whole number in years). [HINT: use the sort function to sort Cells 2 to 50 in Column A and B (as a block, sorted by MI) before you begin assigning ages – this will make it much easier to generate ages, because wallabies will be arranged from youngest to oldest – don’t worry that the skull numbers will be jumbled – we won’t be using these in the analysis]. STEP 2 – Once all the MI and age data are entered alongside the corresponding skull ID, click on the worksheet ‘Life table’. You will see here that there is a template for a life table that has the following columns: Column A – Actual numbers of skulls at each age Column B – Age in years (x) Column C – Age interval (yrs) Column D – number surviving (nx) Column E – Proportion surviving (lx) Column F – Deaths at each age interval (dx) Column G – mortality rate (qx) Column H – Number surviving at agex at last birthday (bx) Column I – Expectation of further life (ex) in years If you had a look at this spreadsheet before you entered the age data in the ‘Molar Index’, you will now see that the sheet has changed – the ‘Actual Numbers of skulls at each age’ column (Column A) is now filled with the data you entered, neatly compiled by age class – you can click on a cell to see the underlying formula for doing this – but don’t change the formula! Definitions for columns requiring calculation of life table parameters are as follows: nx – The number of animals from the original cohort, that are still alive at each age interval

lx – Proportion of animals surviving from birth to age x. Because all individuals born are alive, l0 is proportional to the total number of animals sampled (i.e., is ‘1’), and successive values of lx get smaller, as fewer of those l0 animals live to older and older ages. dx – Deaths at each age interval (dx) is the number of individuals alive at age x that will die before age x+1. qx – the mortality rate (qx) is the per capita mortality rate during an age interval. bx – Number surviving at agex at last birthday – this is a prediction of the average number of individuals alive at the midpoint of age interval x, based upon number alive at one interval (x), and the next interval (x+1). ex – the expectation of further life (in years) for an individual that makes it to age x. This is calculated by summing all the values of bx from that age interval to the bottom of the table, divided by lx So, to recap, you should now have a spreadsheet that has the first three columns complete – is this correct? If so, is now time to calculate the parameters that we can use to describe the population. We will do these calculations, and compile the life table, using some simple Microsoft Excel equations. STEP 3 – Number Surviving (nx). Recall that nx is the number of wallabies surviving from birth to age x. So, we need to write a formula to go in Column D that describes survivorship at each age class. Starting at Cell D2, write the following formula:

=SUM(A5:A$23)

Then hit the return key. What does this formula do? Well, simply put, it sums all of the individuals in Column A, to generate a value that describes the number of individuals surviving to Age 0. Because all individuals survive to this age (i.e., if a wallaby was born, it must have survived to Age 0), this value should be equal to the total animals in our sample – i.e., 49. OK – next step is to copy this cell down to fill the column as far as Cell D23. How do we do this? Hold the mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell – the cursor should change to a square with arrows at top left and bottom right… click and hold the mouse button down while dragging the cursor to Cell D22, then release the mouse. What happened? Hopefully, you generated a series of numbers that describe survivorship at each age class. When you highlight Cell D6, you should see the following formula:

=SUM(A6:A$23) Note that the formula now sums from Cell A6 to A23 (rather than from A5), similarly, in Cell D7, the formula will sum from A7, and so on (the ‘$’ preceding

the ‘23’ keeps Cell A23 constant in each subsequent equation, as the formula changes). When you give this some thought, this makes sense – because we only want survivorship from any particular age class, to the last (oldest) age class. If you have completed this step correctly, you should see fewer and fewer surviving wallabies with increasing age, until at age 18, only 1 wallaby survives (and for our purposes, we will assume that this animal will die before reaching the next age class). STEP 4 – Proportion Surviving If this is to be a representation of the whole population, we need to start converting out numbers to something more universal – the previous column simply told us how many of the 49 animals survived, but by converting this to a proportion, we have a number at each interval that we could apply to a population of any size, to predict how it might behave. So, the next step involves a simple calculation to determine the proportion of wallabies in the original cohort that survive to each age class. Since Column D represents the number surviving to the next age class, Column E is simply the number surviving, divided by our entire sample (N = 49). So, in Cell E2, type the following formula:

=D5/49 – and hit return. Then, as before, click the mouse in the bottom right hand corner of Cell E5, hold the mouse button down, drag the cursor down to Cell E23, and then release the mouse. You should now have filled Column E, which is a calculation of the proportion of animals born into the population that survive to each age class. You will also see that “Figure A, the Proportion of M. dorsalis Surviving (lx)” also was created, so you can, for the first time, see graphically how you data compares to that of White’s (2004) data. STEP 5 – Deaths at each age interval (dx), and mortality rate (qx) Survivorship and mortality are clearly inter-related; mortality at any one age interval is simply the difference between the numbers surviving from that age interval to the next. So, the calculation of dx is simply nx – nx+1, so for our spreadsheet, type the following in Cell F5:

=D5-D6

Copy this formulae down to Cell F23, as previously described at STEP 4. STEP 6 – Mortality Rate Now we are in a position to calculate an important life history parameter for black-striped wallabies that is important in understanding any population – the age-specific mortality rate, or put another way, the rate at which animals in any particular age class would be expected to die before reaching the next age class. Incidentally, this is one of the calculations insurance companies use when determining what to charge you on a life insurance policy (see Table 13.6 on page 221 of Attiwill and Wilson).

Look at Column D of the life table in the spreadsheet. For age interval 0 – 1 we should have 49 animals, but at other age intervals (at least, after about age 3) we see less that this. What happened to those other animals? For whatever reason, they didn’t make it to that particular age class – they died before the next census period. So, the mortality rate at each age class is clearly equal to dx/nx, and in the spreadsheet, we can calculate this by typing the following equation in Cell G5:

=F5/D5 and then copying this down all the way to Cell G23 in the usual manner. You now have an estimate of the rate at which animals at different age classes in the population are dying – or put another way, “what is the likelihood of death for a wallaby at age x before the next census date”. And, as for proportion surviving in STEP 4, you now also have a graphical representation of this in “Figure B: Mortality rate (qx) for M. dorsalis”, and can compare your data for mortality directly with White’s (2004) data. STEP 7 – Number surviving at agex at last birthday (bx) and expectation of further life (ex). Simply put, bx is the average number of individuals alive at the midpoint of age interval x. So, to calculate this for each age class, you need to calculate the average of one age class (x) and the next age class (x+1). So, at Cell H5, enter the formula that describes this parameter:

=(D5+D6)/2 then, copy this down to H23. You now have a calculation of the ‘age structure’ of the population. You may be asking at this point, so what? Well, this is an intermediate calculation that will allow us to calculate a very useful parameter for the population – expectation of further life. For any age class, our calculations so far allow us to answer questions like: “What is the mortality or survival rate of animals in that age class?” But importantly, as an individual animal survives each age class, its expectation of further life should increase, because it managed to survive (through finding food, evading predation and disease etc) where others died. Life tables allow us to ask the question “For animals at a given age, how much longer should we expect those animals to live?” To calculate this, we sum the age structure of the remainder of the population older than any particular age class, and divide this value by the number of animals surviving at that age class. So, type the following formula into Cell I5:

=SUM(H5:H$23)/D5 And copy this down to Cell I23, as previously described. Have a look at the values you generated in this column. Starting at Age 0, we can see that all animals, at birth, have an expectation of further life of about 7.4 years (or something similar). But, if we look at Age 8, we see that animals that survived to 8 years of age have an expectation of further life of about 5

years. At age 11, these animals can be expected to live another 3.5 years, and so on. Once again, insurance companies use calculations of this nature on human census data to determine life insurance premiums. STEP 8 – Generating a Survivorship Curve The final step involves generating a survivorship curve for black-striped wallabies that we can compare to theoretical survivorship curves commonly used to summarise a population’s demography. These curves (e.g. Figure 13.12 on page 222 in Attiwill and Wilson) have a logarithmic scale on the y- axis, so to compare to our survivorship for wallabies to these theoretical curves, we must convert our data for nx to log values. To do this, type:

=LOG(D5) in Cell D26, and copy this down to Cell D44. Presto! – you have a survivorship curve for the population. References Attiwill, P. and Wilson, B. (2006). Ecology: An Australian Perspective. 2nd Edition. Oxford

University Press, Melbourne. Jackson, S. (2003). Australian Mammals: Biology and Captive Management. CSIRO

Publishing, Melbourne. Kirkpatrick, T.H. (1964). Molar progression and macropod age. Qld J. Ag. Anim. Sci. 21:

163–165. Kirkpatrick, T.H. (1965). Studies of Macropodidae in Queensland. 2. Age estimation in the

grey kangaroo, the eastern wallaroo, and the red-necked wallaby, with notes on dental abnormalities. Qld J. Ag. Anim. Sci. 22: 301–317.

White, D. (2004). Utilisation of remnant Brigalow communities and adjacent pasture by the

black-striped wallaby (Macropus dorsalis). Master of Resource Science, University of New England, Armidale NSW.

Assessment Questions As part of your assessment (the other part being the completed spreadsheet), you are required to write a paragraph on each of the following questions (use Microsoft Word for this), and submit your responses as part of your assignment. The total length of this section should be no more than 600 words.

1. How do the graphs you made compare to White’s data? Was your sample a reasonable representation of the black-striped wallaby population?

2. Given your results, how would you respond if someone asked the

question: “To what age does a black-striped wallaby live at the Brigalow Research Station?”

3. In reference to hypothetical survivorship curves (see pages 221-222 in

Attiwill and Wilson), what type of survivorship do black-striped wallabies most likely exhibit? Does this fit the typical curve for mammals?

4. Does the mortality rate fit the prediction for mammals? In very brief

terms, explain the pattern of mortality in the black-striped wallaby population.

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REPORT: THE COCA-COLA COMPANY

The Coca-Cola company has been a dominant player in the beverage industry for over a century. Market dominance can be attributed to the company’s strategic management plans. Strategic management involves the continuous planning and formulation of policies that are relevant to an organization’s vision, (Wheelen, et.al., 2017). The plans are key to achieving goals and objectives of the company. A company’s operations are subject to internal and external factors. Internal factors are mainly the human resource and managerial activities undertaken. The company can control its internal environment to suit its production activities. On the other hand, external environment entails all the activities that happen outside the company but can influence its production processes. External factors are uncontrollable.

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Organizational culture: It entails all the values and traditions that the company strives to uphold throughout its production life. The mission of the company includes; refresh the world in body, mind and spirit, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference everywhere the company engages, through actions and brands, (Bowers, et.al., 2017). The vision is to become fully sustainable and achieve long-term growth. Values upheld by the company include; accountability, commitment, integrity, unity of purpose, innovation and quality.

Human resource: This is the department tasked with recruiting, hiring and staffing of employees. Human resource managers at Coca cola focus much on hiring highly competent workers. This helps the company to maintain its position as the leading producer of beverages in the international market. Human resource ensures that all employee affairs are addressed effectively to enable them to concentrate and be more productive. Also, appropriate compensation plans are formulated to ensure that all employees feel appreciated and valued for their service, (Noe, et.al., 2017). The company also has training programs for all its workers across the world. This is to equip all staff members with the necessary skills that are specifically needed to achieve the company goals. Human resource management at the company is very much effective and this can be proven from their ever-expanding business and employee volumes.

Company physical assets: For any company to operate effectively, there has to be enormous investments on physical assets. The coca cola company has invested heavily on land, buildings, equipment and machinery. All these are to enable effective production process. Equipment and machinery are regularly serviced and faulty ones replaced with new ones. Also, the company disposes off its physical assets after a useful life of 40 years. New assets are purchased to enable smooth operations after disposing the old ones.

Organizational structure: The company has in recent years shifted its structure to adapt a decentralized system of organization. The two main divisions of the company are the Bottling investments and the Corporate department. Bottling mainly deals with actual production activities like packaging and distribution. On the other hand, the corporate department majors in the office management activities, sales and marketing, policy formulation and revision of goals and objectives.

Profits and cashflows management: Profits maximization is always one of the main objectives of any company. Shareholders wealth must be maximized. Profits realization is a way of assessing the effectiveness of operations. Coca cola company has its profits and cashflows analyzed annually by the finance and accounting departments. All cashflow analysis are shared with all investors in the company.

Decision making: The company does not make any hasty decisions. Analysis is done annually to evaluate performance and determine whether any changes should be made especially regarding the products, (Meissner & Wulf, 2015).

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Just like any other organization, the coca cola company is affected by factors beyond its control from time to time. Such factors may include; political instabilities, unhealthy competition, climate change, trends and technological changes, legal restrictions such as market liberalization in different economies, and media advertisements which influence market behavior, (Barlow, et.al,.2018) The company is unable to change occurrences that are outside its jurisdiction. The only way to prevail is by making necessary adjustments from time to time to counter the prevailing external environment.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Competitive advantage means having supremacy over the competitors in the market. By being the most valued and most preferred by the consumers, a company is said to have more competitive advantage. Products of the coca cola company have been ranked the most demanded beverages all over the world. The company has gone ahead to franchise and establish production lines across continents in the world. Great sales and marketing strategies have ensured that the company reaches all parts of the world. This extensive market coverage and consistency in quality production has facilitated the company’s great market power.

STRATEGIES USED TO GAIN COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Branding has been the far most essential strategy used by the Coca-Cola company to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Creation of several brands each targeting a certain specific group of customers has improved the sales of the company, (Bragg, et.al., 2018).

Advertisements on mainstream media and also on social networks has also been very beneficial in gaining competitive advantage. Coca-Cola has for many years used true stories to inspire and influence market behavior. The company has been able to capture the interests of many customers through the personal stories shared on adverts, (Deal, 2018).

Secrecy especially on the composition and production of the beverages has been the best strategy for the company since its inception. The company’s beverages have remained unique for over a century and thus the customers are able to identify and relate to the products easily, (Krishnaswamy, 2017). This has been instrumental in maintaining a competitive advantage in the global market.

MEASUREMENT GUIDELINES TO VERIFY STRATEGIC EFFECTIVENESS

The Coca-Cola company has two main guidelines used in evaluation of strategic effectiveness. The two guidelines include; earnings and earnings growth, and profit margins. Total earnings are equivalent to sales times the profit margins. Earnings growth is changes witnessed in earning over time. Profit margins cover gross profits and gross profits margins. Gross profit value equals total sales less the value of cost of sales. The gross profit margin is equal to the gross income divided by the total sales.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MEASUREMENT GUIDELINES

Gross profit is very essential in analyzing a company’s performance. A positive trend in gross profits is an indication of efficient utilization of company resources in the production process. Gross profit is also very relevant in calculating the organization’s gross profit margins. The gross profit margins indicate level of efficiency in production and distribution processes. Coca-Cola boasts having higher profit margins than its competitors in the market. This alone is a key attraction for investors to the company and thus the company is ever expanding.

Also, Coca-Cola has maintained a positive trend in its earnings and an ever-increasing growth in earnings. This signifies the company’s great performance in its activities. Total sales have been on the rise and thus the total net profits have also been increasing.

References

Barlow, P., Serôdio, P., Ruskin, G., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2018). Science organisations and Coca-Cola’s ‘war’with the public health community: insights from an internal industry document. J Epidemiol Community Health, 72(9), 761-763.

Bowers, M. R., Hall, J. R., & Srinivasan, M. M. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership style: for effective crisis management. Business Horizons, 60(4), 551-563.

Bragg, M. A., Roberto, C. A., Harris, J. L., Brownell, K. D., & Elbel, B. (2018). Marketing food and beverages to youth through sports. Journal of Adolescent Health, 62(1), 5-13.

Deal, J. (2018). Brand Communication in a Large Consumer Goods Company: A Case of The Coca-Cola Company.

Krishnaswamy, S. (2017). Sources of Sustainable competitive Advantage: A Study & Industry Outlook. St. Theresa Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(1).

Meissner, P., & Wulf, T. (2015). The development of strategy scenarios based on prospective hindsight: an approach to strategic decision making. Journal of Strategy and

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy (p. 55). Boston: pearson

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the course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.  

SEIIC’s compensation and benefits programs are based on traditional design principles typical of a company of its age and history. For example, almost all employees receive annual pay increases of two to five percent. This is frustrating to both managers and high performing employees. Managers would like to give better pay raises to high performers. However, budgets are only enough to cover the “required” raises to all employees; this leaves too little for more significant raises to high performers. Naturally, as a result, high performers who feel underpaid often seek other employment. The company’s policies have tended to reward seniority rather than performance, and because of the job evaluation system, compensation is tightly compressed. Benefits are thought to be generous in that the company pays for most of the cost. However, the structure of the benefits is rigid and only includes such traditional benefits as health insurance, life insurance, and a 401(k) plan.

The company recognizes that things are changing in its business environment, the needs of its people are changing, and business is more global than in the past. As part of the ongoing analysis of trends that should influence the redesign of HRM in the company, what are the relevant trends in compensation and benefits to which the company should pay the most attention to develop the kind of employees it needs and retain its most valuable performers? To answer this question, address the prompts:

• Evaluate at least three trends or recent approaches in compensation that SEIIC should consider in its redesign effort, including the pros and cons of each.
• Evaluate at least three trends or recent approaches in benefits that SEIIC should consider in its redesign effort, including the pros and cons of each.
• Assess other intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that SEIIC should consider in its redesign effort, including pros and cons of those motivators.
• Using your evaluation in the previous three sections (compensation, benefits, and intrinsic/extrinsic motivators), justify an action plan to develop and retain valuable performers in the organization.

Submission Details:

• Submit your four- to five-page paper in APA style to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.

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