Friday, April 4, 2014
Passion for the Outdoors and for People
At its headquarters in Ventura, California, Patagonia’s office space feels more like a national park lodge than the main office of a $400 million retailer.100 It has a Douglas fir staircase and a portrait of Yosemite’s El Capitan. The company’s café serves organic food and drinks. There’s an infant and toddler child-care room for employees’ children. An easy one-block walk from the Pacific Ocean, employees’ surfboards are lined up by the cafeteria, ready at a moment’s notice to catch some waves. (Current wave reports are noted on a whiteboard in the lobby.) After surfing or jogging or biking, employees can freshen up in the showers in the restrooms. And no one has a private office. If an employee doesn’t want to be disturbed, he or she wears headphones. Visitors are evident by the business attire they wear. The company encourages celebrations to boost employee morale. For instance, at the Reno store, the “Fun Patrol” organizes parties throughout the year.
Attracting people who share its strong passion for the outdoors and the environment, Patagonia motivates its loyal employees by giving them responsibility for the outcomes of their work and a high level of task significance that their work is meaningful because it contributes to the purpose of protecting and preserving the environment.
Source: Rich Reid/Glow Images
Patagonia has long been recognized as a great workplace for mothers. And it’s also earned a reputation for loyal employees, something that many retailers struggle with. Its combined voluntary and involuntary turnover in its retail stores was around 25 percent, while it was only 7 percent at headquarters. (The industry average for retail is around 44 percent.) Patagonia’s CEO Casey Sheahan says the company’s culture, camaraderie, and way of doing business is very meaningful to employees and they know that “what they do each day is contributing toward a higher purpose—protecting and preserving the areas that most of them love spending time in.” Managers are coached to define expectations, communicate deadlines, and then let employees figure out the best way to meet those.
Founded by Yvon Chouinard (his profile as a Leader Who Made a Difference can be found on p. 134), Patagonia’s first and strongest passion is for the outdoors and the environment. And that attracts employees who are also passionate about those things. But Patagonia’s executives do realize that they are first and foremost a business and, even though they’re committed to doing the right thing, the company needs to remain profitable to be able to continue to do the things it’s passionate about. But that hasn’t seemed to be an issue since the recession in the early 1990s when the company had to make its only large-scale layoffs in its history.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.
What would it be like to work at Patagonia? (Hint: Go to Patagonia’s Web site and find the section on jobs.) What’s your assessment of the company’s work environment?
2.
Using what you’ve learned from studying the various motivation theories, what does Patagonia’s situation tell you about employee motivation?
3.
What do you think might be Patagonia’s biggest challenge in keeping employees motivated?
4.
If you were managing a team of Patagonia employees in the retail stores, how would you keep them motivated?
technology adoption
Identify two articles that deal with communicating with global audiences around a technology, which could be about technology adoption, upgrade, legacy, impact to a business or community, et cetera. It is recommended that one search term be a leading technology company, such as IBM, HP, Google, Oracle, et cetera, in order to find relevant articles.For this discussion, you are to select one of the two articles.Your choice should be predicated on its usefulness to your current or future work situation. Evaluate this article as follows: its objective and conclusion as it applies to your current or future business environment. Prepare a communication, translated for a global business audience, that includes why they need to know this information. Use your business-technology glossary and the Communications Process Model found in the Course Resources to craft this communication.
Explain why an empty gasoline drum can be more dangerous than a full one. Why is a drum of carbon disulfide more likely to ignite than a drum containing gasoline?
Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
2.
Explain the differences between Class A, B, and C explosives.
Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
3.
Discuss the procedures you would establish in order to conduct arc welding in a permit-required confined space. Be specific, and provide examples in your response.
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Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
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Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
Explain OSHA requirements for administrative controls, hearing protection and hearing testing, and conservation programs.
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Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
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Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
4.
Explain OSHA requirements for administrative controls, hearing protection and hearing testing, and conservation programs.
Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
Your response should be at least 250 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
subject and book to citied
Asfahl, C. R., & Rieske, D. W. (2010). Industrial safety and health management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Acting as the CEO of a small company, you will apply the principles of capital budgeting to invest in growth and cash flow improvement opportunities in three phases over 10 simulated years. Each opportunity has a unique financial profile and you must analyze the effects on working capital.
Resources:
Harvard Business Publishing: Working Capital Simulation: Managing Growth Assignment
Ch. 1 - 21 ofFundamentals of Corporate Finance
WileyPLUS Assignments
All additional resources from each week
Review the following scenario:
Acting as the CEO of a small company, you will apply the principles of capital budgeting to invest in growth and cash flow improvement opportunities in three phases over 10 simulated years. Each opportunity has a unique financial profile and you must analyze the effects on working capital. Examples of opportunities include taking on new customers, capitalizing on supplier discounts, and reducing inventory.
You must understand how the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows are interconnected and be able to analyze forecasted financial information to consider possible effects of each opportunity on the firm's financial position. The company operates on thin margins with a constrained cash position and limited available credit. You must optimize use of internal and external credit as you balance the desire for growth with the need for maintaining liquidity.
Sign-in to the simulation and review each of the following:
- Welcome Statement
- How to Play
- Terminology Primer
- More Details (this includes information to help you understand how to play the simulation)
Write a paper of no more than 1,400 words that analyzes your decisions during each phase (1-3) and how they influenced each of the following final outcomes (metrics) of SNC:
- Sales
- EBIT
- Net Income
- Free Cash Flow
- Total Firm Value
Address the following in your paper:
- A summary of your decisions and why you made them
- How they affected SNC's working capital
- What general effects are associated with limited access to financing
Include scholarly references (in addition to your course textbook and simulation materials) to support your positions.
Personal Power, Communication and Effective Persuasion
The purpose of this assignment is for you to think about personal power type and how it can influence our ability to negotiate, communicate and persuade others during a negotiation.
In this assignment, you will write a research paper (5-6 pages) which will examine communication techniques, the use of power, and how the concepts of effective persuasion are applied to a specific situation.
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Consider a scenario you have experienced or observed which involved a negotiation, persuasive techniques and balance of power. This could be a situation you experienced at work, home, school, shopping for a big ticket item or even negotiating at a yard sale or flea market. You may also choose a video clip found on the Internet which involves a negotiation as the basis for this assignment. There is a link to a sample video scenario in the webilography entitled: Workplace Communication.
1. Describe the scenario you are using as the basis for this assignment. The scenario must include elements of negotiation, persuasive techniques, and balance of power. If your selected scenario does not contain certain elements, then use what you have learned from your studies in this course, along with your research, to expand the scenario to include these elements. Provide a rationale for your choices. If you are using a video, please include the URL in your description.
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2. Describe what you believe to be the top three communication issues presented in the scenario. Explain your choices.
3. Identify the sources of power used in the negotiation and explain whether the sources of power were perceived or real. Use examples to justify your response.
4. Describe the relative balance of powers between the parties in the scenario.
5. Assume you were the mediator in the chosen scenario and recommend strategies which might reduce the conflict between the parties.
6. List and describe the top 5 factors you believe should be considered when building an effective negotiation strategy. Explain your rationale for choosing the factors you included.
7. Discuss how persuasion differs from negotiation and describe how each was used in the scenario. Explain if persuasion or negotiation was more effective in the scenario. Justify your response.
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