01 Jan Apply Chaffee’s problem-solving

dq 1

Summarize what you have learned from the results of the two self-assessments that you completed in this unit. Think about the role of writing and a tool such as MS Excel in your business career and include the following in your summary:

Your writing assessment scores.
Your Excel assessment score.
A self-evaluation of what these assessments mean, how they might be related to your success in this program and in your career, and how you might work to improve these skills, if you are not happy with your current capabilities. Consider resources available in the Capella Writing Center and MBA Central Discussions (a wide variety of resources, posted by learners).
A concise description of one potential direction you see your career taking, once you have completed the MBA program.
Your initial ideas for steps you might take while pursuing your MBA to support this career direction.
Over the course of your program, you will be expected to continually improve your writing skills to develop into a professional, persuasive writer. You will be given a few writing resources in each assignment in this course to help build and improve your writing skills. Be sure to take advantage of the resources provided throughout the course so that you are prepared for the academic rigor of future courses in your program.

Response Guidelines

Responses are optional.

dq 2

Activity Context

This discussion helps you develop the skills to master the following course competency:

Apply frameworks and theoretical concepts to systematically analyze business issues.
Revisit the MBA6004 Course Alignment Map, linked in the Resources, to review how all activities assist you in achieving the course competencies and overall program outcomes. This discussion will aid you in developing a consistent approach to case study analysis, including determining what information is needed and assessing the needed information.

Activity Instructions

Apply Chaffee’s problem-solving approach on page 78 of Thinking Critically to the following situation. Use this approach to analyze the situation below, and then post your analysis of approximately four paragraphs:

Your company manufactures components for a major computer manufacturer. Your products have had some persistent quality issues. The components are items such as on-off switches and other servo-mechanisms that fail before they should. The problem is becoming quite serious and your main customer has threatened to go to another vendor if you cannot fix the problem. Step by step, what do you do to solve the problem? Be specific and explain why you take each step.

If you are not certain about what makes a good discussion posting, view the media piece Improving Discussion Posting: Effective Communication(linked in the Resources), which shows learners applying critical thinking skills to discussion posts and responses.

Response Guidelines

Respond to the posts of at least two peers. You all used the same problem-solving approach. Did you come up with the same analysis as your peers? What was the same? What was different? How do you account for those differences?