01 Jan Considering the course competencies

capella mba6004 unit 1 discussion dq1 & dq 2

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?

capella mba6004 unit 2 discussion dq 1

Activity Context

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

Apply frameworks and theoretical concepts to systematically analyze business issues.
Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Apply collaborative techniques to the virtual environment.
Activity Instructions

Part 1 – Initial Post

In approximately 500 words, describe a real-world business decision that you had to make or a problem that you had to solve for which there was no clear solution. Describe the problem in as much detail as possible within the length guideline. Do not tell how you solved the problem. Post your story to this discussion by Wednesday, following the instructions for initial discussion posts in this course. (If you have never confronted a business dilemma, you can research one and relate it here, making sure to provide citations.)

Note: Share only what is appropriate to share. Respect confidential information, and when writing about personal experiences, do not identify actual companies or individuals.

Part 2 – Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and choose two of them to respond to; try to choose classmates who have not yet had a response. Post a response to the discussion in which you address your peers’ dilemmas. Explain how you would solve the problem each peer presented. Apply critical thinking to the issues and come up with a course of action. Support your strategy by referencing the course readings on critical thinking, using appropriate citations. Ensure that you have at least one citation.

If you would like additional guidance on applying critical thinking in discussion posts, view Improve Discussion Postings: Apply Critical Thinking (linked in the Resources).

Part 3 – Initial Post Follow-up

After you have responded to your peer, return to your original post to review the responses that you received. Post a follow-up response to your original discussion that includes the following:

Summarize how you actually solved the business problem or decision, outlining the steps that you took.
Based on the peer response that you received, describe how you would have dealt with the situation differently. How would you have incorporated your peer’s suggestions and why? Which aspects of their suggestions do you find helpful and which do you find problematic? Explain your assessments.
Continue the discussion as long as it remains useful to you. Be polite and reply to any additional peers who took the time to discuss your posted dilemma.
Also check the responses that you received in other discussions and interact as appropriate.
capella mba6004 unit 3 discussion dq 1

Activity Context

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

Apply frameworks and theoretical concepts to systematically analyze business issues.
Apply collaborative techniques to the virtual environment.
In addition to learning from textbooks, media, and instructors, adults learn from other adults who are not in the formal role of instructors, often peers or other associates in the workplace. Developing the ability to provide and use peer feedback may be at the same time one of the most important and most neglected competencies in business today. In Unit 2, you experienced this type of learning in the discussion of the business problem you chose. If you have worked on projects in a business, you have probably had other opportunities to experience this type of collaboration. In this discussion, your job is twofold: to provide constructive feedback for two of your peers that could be useful in building their course projects and to consider feedback that your peers offer to you for your project. Here are some suggestions to help you successfully complete this discussion.

Activity Instructions

As soon as you have submitted your Annotated Outline to your instructor, post a copy in this discussion for peer review. Note that, since the deadline for the assignment is Sunday, you should complete your initial post in this discussion on Sunday. However, your responses are not due until next Wednesday.

Your initial post in this discussion has two parts:

A one-paragraph description of your project, including the company you have chosen and the Web or Internet uses that you have chosen to investigate. Briefly explain why you chose those particular uses.
Your Annotated Outline, in an attachment.
Response Guidelines

Check the related Unit 4 discussion, the first discussion in that unit, early next week,and complete your response by the end of the day on Wednesday of next week (Unit 4).

When you begin working on Unit 4, select two peers that you will respond to. Before moving on with your review, reply to your peers here, letting them know that you will review their papers. If any of your peers do not yet have someone who agreed to review their paper, please choose them. In this way we hope that everyone will receive 1–2 peer reviews.

capella mba6004 unit 4 discussion dq 1 & dq 2

dq 1

The purpose of this discussion is to provide, and receive, peer feedback on the Unit 3 assignment, Annotated Outline.

In the discussion in Unit 3, you posted your Annotated Outline, along with a brief description of your project direction. This discussion is the next step: providing peer reviews for two of your peers. Post your peer reviews here, with a subject line that indicates the name of the person whose outline you are reviewing, so that each of you can easily find the reviews of your outline. Here are the steps to follow to complete this peer review discussion:

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers in the Unit 3 discussion, select two to review, and download copies of those Annotated Outlines. Check for posts from the discussion to determine whether anyone is already reviewing those learners’ outlines. Try to find peers whose outlines do not already have reviewers.
Read the Guidelines for Effective Peer Review provided in the Resources.
Provide feedback to two of your peers. Include the author’s name in the subject line.
Review the feedback that you receive from your peers and use the feedback as you see fit as in developing your project draft, due at the end of Unit 4.
Complete your responses to peers by the end of the day on Wednesday of this week, so that they, and you, have time to incorporate the feedback into your assignment draft in this unit.

Check the discussion threads over the next couple of days and respond to any follow-up questions your peers have about the feedback you gave them.

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.
Activity Instructions

This activity will help you learn to evaluate arguments, which, according to Chaffee in Thinking Critically, is entirely necessary for constructing your own effective arguments.

Choose any argument from “Thinking Activity 10.3” in Thinking Critically (page 459) and use Chaffee’s three-step approach to evaluate it.
Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two of them. Do you agree or disagree with their evaluation? Why?

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.
Activity Instructions

Explain, in several paragraphs (but no more than four), the implications of the Malcolm Gladwell article “How David Beats Goliath.” Apply some aspects of the article to your experience and future.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two of them.

capella mba6004 unit 5 discussion dq 1

Activity Context

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

· Apply frameworks and theoretical concepts to systematically analyze business issues.

· Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.

You will analyze a case study from three ethical perspectives and publish your findings as a PowerPoint presentation. This exercise will help you apply the ethical frameworks that you have been reading about and hone them to fit your own approach when analyzing business issues. You will also gain experience in presenting information using PowerPoint.

Activity Instructions

Read Case 4.1 on page 34 in yourBusiness Ethics as Rational Choicetext. Using the new information given to you about John Pepper in Exercise 1, develop and post a PowerPoint presentation that presents your results in applying the generalization test, utilitarian test, virtue ethics test, and any other pertinent analysis to this situation.

Your presentation should consist of 5–6 slides and include slides for an introduction, conclusion, and references. Use the notes section of your PowerPoint to add detail or to explain the content of each slide as you would if you were presenting the PowerPoint. Be sure to include citations where appropriate. As a business professional, it is important that you understand the proper way to cite and reference other author’s work. Review your APA manual as you complete your PowerPoint, focusing on Chapters 6 and 7.

The case study analysis is just one part of this assignment, so invest an equal amount of your energy into creating a presentation that conveys the information clearly and concisely, is professional in appearance, and is engaging for the audience. Use the resources provided on using PowerPoint and creating effective PowerPoint presentations to help you refine and improve your PowerPoint skills.

· Post your PowerPoint presentation byThursday.

· Include a list of items on which you want others to focus when they review your presentation. For example, you may want to ask your peers to carefully read your conclusion to ensure that it is appropriately supported, or you may ask how effective your slides were in conveying your information.

Response Guidelines

Review the posts of your peers and respond to one of them. Address the items they would like you to focus on, but make sure your feedback considers both the content of the material and its presentation. Tell them what you liked about the presentation. Make a suggestion or two for improvement. The thoughtful feedback you give your peers will not only help them improve their work but will also provide you with insights about your own work.

capella mba6004 unit 6 discussion dq 1 & dq 2

dq 1

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.
Activity Instructions

Explain, in several paragraphs (but no more than four), the implications of the Malcolm Gladwell article “How David Beats Goliath.” Apply some aspects of the article to your experience and future.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two of them.

dq 2

Throughout the course, you have been building toward the achievement of the following competencies:

Apply frameworks and theoretical concepts to systematically analyze business issues.
Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Apply collaborative techniques to the virtual environment.
For this discussion, reflect on the knowledge and skills you developed over the past six weeks. Address the following questions in your post:

Considering the course competencies, how has your ability to perform these skills and apply this knowledge evolved?
What concepts, skills, or insights were most relevant to you? How will you apply them to your professional work?
What new ideas have you developed about how the MBA might apply to your career and about how you might further develop the skills you self-assessed in Unit 1?
Response Guidelines

Responses to this discussion areoptional. When responding to others, provide encouraging feedback about how learners have grown over the past six weeks. If applicable, provide recommendations for how learners may continue to develop these skills and knowledge or suggest additional strategies for leveraging the knowledge gained in the course.

Note: Share only what is appropriate to share. Respect confidential information, and when writing about personal experiences, do not identify actual companies or individuals