01 Jan With technology revolutionizing

GC MGT605 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1

In many organizations, being “people-centered” is considered soft, irrelevant, and unrelated to profitability. Using support from historical perspectives of organizational behavior, explain how you would rebut these arguments.

dq 2

Review the “Skills Exhibited by an Effective Manager” (Table 1-2 in Organizational Behavior). Identify your particular areas of strength and discuss opportunities for your own development as a manager.

dq 3
How would you go about facilitating the creation of diversity in an organization that is traditionally homogenous? What support is needed from top management in developing a program to implement organizational diversity? What potential problems of implementing a diversity program do you foresee and how can they be managed?

GC MGT605 WEEK 2 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1

Discuss the role that emotional intelligence (EI) plays in the self-leadership. Be sure to provide an analysis of all four dimensions of EI (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management) in your response.
dq 2

What are your major terminal and instrumental values? Which values, terminal or instrumental, are valid predictors of career success in the workplace?

dq 3

Consider the concept of work-family conflict by reflecting on these questions: Is your work really meeting your needs? Are you defining yourself purely in terms of your accomplishments at work? Why are you working so hard? To what personal ends are you working? Are you making significant personal sacrifices in favor of your work? Is your work schedule affecting other people who are important in your life? Offer some suggestions on how to resolve such issues.

GC MGT605 WEEK 8 DISCUSSION 1 & 2

dq 1
Assume for a moment that one of your fellow department managers bursts into your office with a troubled look on her face. She sits down and says with a tone of disgust, “You can’t do anything with these new employees . . . they aren’t motivated by money anymore.” Construct a detailed response (like a script) in which you describe how content and process theories might be used to motivate employees. Be sure to include comments on two content theories and two process theories and highlight the significance of each theory.

dq 2

What is the current design of your job? Assume that the opportunity arose for you to utilize the idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) in redesigning your job. What would you do to make your job inherently more motivating? How would you design the feedback and reward systems in the new job?

GC MGT605 WEEK 4 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1
Choose any group to which you currently belong or have belonged to in the past. Discuss the type of group, its intended purpose, and how it was formed. What were some benefits and challenges you faced while working in this group? How might those benefits and challenges differ in a virtual group setting?

dq 2
Refer to Table 11-4 in the Krietner and Kinicki textbook. Which of the reasons for team failure have you experienced and how would you do things differently to ensure that any team you are involved in will be successful?

dq 3

Although virtual teams are becoming more prevalent, there have been mixed reviews on their effectiveness. Read “The Best Online Platforms for Virtual Meetings,” “5 Tips for Virtual Collaboration,” and “Yahoo Orders Homeworkers Back to the Office” (attached in the Module 4 Topic Materials). Discuss the steps you would take to manage a successful virtual team (be sure to discuss how you would choose a platform to use and guidelines for monitoring virtual team performance).

GC MGT605 WEEK 5 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1
Many types of negotiations occur in business settings. This example is indicative of the ethical dilemmas inherent in many negotiations.

dq 2

Answer the following questions based on the case presented in DQ 1:

What are the challenges to effective communication in this case and how can these challenges be mitigated?

How would evidence-based decision making help in resolving this case?

dq 3

Workers increasingly rely on means of technology-mediated communication in the workplace. Besides email, workers commonly utilize tools, such as instant messaging and virtual meeting spaces, to regularly interact with coworkers and clients. How do you think such tools impact interpersonal dynamics in the workplace? What are the benefits and challenges of these tools? How might those challenges be overcome?

GC MGT605 WEEK 6 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1
What are the key values of your organization? How are they vital to understanding the politics within the organization, the influence tactics used, and the power bases emphasized in the organization? Why is understanding all of these important to you as a citizen of the organization?

dq 2

Conduct some web-based research into two organizations that profess to have adopted a servant leadership philosophy (e.g., SWA, Men’s Warehouse, TDIndustries). What are the organizations’ values? Compare these organizations to others in the same industry using major performance metrics (employee turnover, market share, profitability, etc.) and conclude whether or not you think having a servant leader philosophy makes a significant difference in company performance.

dq 3

Read Suzanne Peterson’s article, “Leaders, Too, Need Support.” How do you see yourself in the role of supportive follower? What challenges do you have with this concept? What can you do to overcome those challenges?

GC MGT605 WEEK 7 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1

One of your managers heard you have just completed your MBA. He looked at you and smirked and said, “All this emphasis on relationships is overrated. I have always made it clear to my subordinates what they need to do if they want to remain employed. All I have to say to them is, ‘Get it done and you will get rewarded, and if not, there will be consequences.’ It truly is that simple! Developing relationships with employees and suppliers or contractors, all that stuff is only good in the textbooks. It never delivers results.” Prepare a response to him and post it on the discussion board.

dq 2
Contrast the tradeoffs involved when an organization decides it is going to restructure. Be sure that you evaluate the critical organizational design variables that you would want to consider if you were heading up such a project.

dq 3

Evaluate the organizational chart for your current organization. Provide recommendations for revising the organizational design so it more effectively serves the mission of the firm and its many stakeholders.

GC MGT605 WEEK 8 DISCUSSION 1 , 2 & 3

dq 1

With technology revolutionizing the way that work is done, we see significant changes in both the organization of work as well as in organizational cultures. Read “How corporate culture will change in the face of openness” and “Remodeling corporate culture for the digital era” (attached in the Module 8 Topic Materials). Based on the articles, discuss the major opportunities and challenges that these shifts present.

dq 2

Discuss the ethical implications of a leader’s role in the socialization of new hires into the preexisting culture of an organization. What responsibility does a company have to inform newly hired persons that it wants to shape their values, perceptions, and behavior to conform to the organization’s culture? What impact does socialization have on both individual and organizational effectiveness?

dq 3
Contrast the corporate values espoused by two Fortune 500 companies. Select two firms that seem to manifest very different cultures. Your response should focus on the tradeoffs you would experience working in the two firms in terms of the values you bring to the workplace. How might your values fit in or clash with the culture of these two organizations?