ASSIGNMENT 1: ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS

Due Week 4 and worth 190 points

Leaders address issues and propose solutions. As a leader, you’ll need to stay on top of events that may

facilitate or hinder productivity. You must create and

implement solutions to address these issues.

In the Assignment Prep, you chose an organization, described its organizational issue, and identified how

it hinders organization efficiency. This assignment exposes you to complex modern organizational

challeng

es. The solutions you devise should reflect your learning and research of organizational and

individual influences in the workplace.

INSTRUCTIONS

The new CEO has selected your consulting firm to provide him/her an analysis of the organizational

efficienc

y.

Following SWS standards, write a 2 to 3 page, double

–

spaced paper in which you will present to the CEO

your findings during your research steps. You must propose strategic solutions in your paper to include

the following:

1.

Describe the Organization and

the Issue to Resolve

○

Provide a brief description of the organization you selected.

○

Present the organizational issue that adversely affected productivity and that you, the consultant,

will review and resolve.

2.

Analyze Current Corporate Culture

○

How has the

current corporate culture facilitated the development of the current issue? Research

the organization, dig into the culture, and analyze how it contributed to this issue. Hint: Review

the mission and vision statements as well as the corporate website.

3.

Ide

ntify Areas of Weakness

○

What are the organization’s areas of weakness as they relate to the issue? Use your research on

organizational behavior approaches to corporate culture, diversity, teamwork, and motivational

strategies to help identify the areas of

weakness.

4.

Propose Solutions

○

What organizational practices would you modify? What solutions would you recommend to

management that would help solve the identified weaknesses? As

a

consultant you will identify

the suggestions and solutions you would present to the organization’s leader

ship with regard to

modifying current organizational practices to resolve the issue.

5.

References and Citations

○

Provide at least 2 quality resources such as the

the

course textbook,

a

company website,

business websites (CNBC, Bloomberg, etc.), resources fro

m the Strayer Library, and/or outside

sources.

Note:

Wikipedia and web

–

based blogs do not qualify as credible resources.

You can find in depth and quality company information using the Nexis Uni database through Strayer

University Library:

https://advance

–

le

xis

–

com.libdatab.strayer.edu/api/page/nexisuni

–

business/?primaryipauth=true&context=1516831

○

In

–

text citations are required when paraphrasing or quoting another source.

6.

Formatting and Writing Standards

○

Formatting and writing standards are part of

your grade. Align your formatting to the Strayer

Writing Standards

Carl Walsh wrote in a paper published by the San Francisco Fed that “greater political control [less central bank independence] over the conduct of monetary policy seems to result in higher average rates of inflation” and more political control over central banks does not yield any “apparent gain in average real economic performance.”

Below are the data on central bank independence (CWN), inflation (INF), money growth (MONEY), and output growth (OUTPUT) for countries used in Walsh’s analysis. Your task is to assess his conclusion using these data.

To do that:

First, test the hypothesis that central bank independence (CWN) and inflation are positively related. You may do this several ways. (I suggest you chose only one and stick with it.) One is to calculate the correlation between the two series. Another is to run a bivariate regression of inflation on CWN. Still another is to plot the data and find the best-fitting relation. (All of these can be done in Excel.) Based on your tests, do the data reject or not reject the null hypothesis that central bank independence and inflation are positively related? Interpret your results.

Second, test the hypothesis that central bank independence and output growth are not related. Use the same testing approach from step one. Based on your tests, do the data reject or not reject the null hypothesis that more political control of the central bank (lower CWN) leads to faster output growth? Interpret your results.

Third, expand the analysis by testing for a relation between central bank independence and money growth. The null hypothesis is: Increased central bank independence decreases the average growth rate of the money supply. Test this hypothesis using the same method used in steps 1 and 2 above. Based on your tests, do the data reject or not reject the null hypothesis that increased central bank independence decreases the average growth rate of the money supply? Interpret your results.

Now, pull all of your results together in one paragraph that explains to me whether central bank independence is a good thing or a bad thing. That is, is greater independence from their governments something that all central banks should strive for?

Your analysis must not exceed three pages, excluding graphs, tables, etc.

Data for analysis

Country	CWN	INF	Money		Output
norway	0.17	10.2	13.6		3.2
belgium	0.17	5.5	3		1
japan	0.18	2.2	4		3.9
nz	0.24	11.8	8.9		2.4
france	0.25	10.3	10.9		1.5
italy	0.25	19.5	13		1.8
uk	0.27	9.5	11.8		0.7
finland	0.28	9.5	12.1		3.4
australia	0.36	9.6	8.9		2.5
ireland	0.44	13	8.7		2.3
canada	0.45	7.7	10.7		1.9
us	0.48	6.5	7.5		1.8
denmark	0.5	8.4	15.4		1.5
greece	0.55	20.4	18.9		1.1
austria	0.61	5.3	7.1		1.6
switz	0.64	4.6	2.1		1.5
germany	0.69	3.7	4.7		1.1
Definitions: CWN is an index of central bank independence; the larger the number the more politically independent is the central bank.
INF is average rate of inflation
Money is average money growth rate
Output is average real GDP growth rate

Question 1

1. 
   
   A customer’s promise to pay in the future for services or goods sold is called a(n) __________.

   		accounts receivable
   		accounts payable
   		unearned revenue
   		notes payable

5 points

Question 2

1. 
   
   A business purchases $3,500 of office supplies for cash. Which of the following sets of ledger accounts reflects the posting of this transaction?

5 points

Question 3

1. 
   
   Which one of the following account groups will decrease with a debit?

   		Assets and expenses
   		Revenues and expenses
   		Liabilities and revenues
   		Assets and liabilities

5 points

Question 4

1. 
   
   A business purchases equipment by paying $7,517 in cash and issuing a note payable of $19,410. Which of the following occurs?

   		Cash is credited for $7,517, Equipment is credited for $26,927, and Notes Payable is debited for $19,410.
   		Cash is credited for $7,517, Equipment is debited for $26,927, and Notes Payable is credited for $19,410.
   		Cash is debited for $7,517, Equipment is debited for $19,410, and Notes Payable is credited for $26,927.
   		Cash is debited for $7,517, Equipment is credited for $19,410, and Notes Payable is debited for $11,893.

5 points

Question 5

1. 
   
   The following transactions for the month of March have been journalized and posted to the proper accounts of a sole proprietorship.

   March 1 The business received $10,000 cash from the owner of the business, Morris Tharps. The business gave capital to Morris Tharps.
   March 2 Paid the first month’s rent of $1,000.
   March 3 Purchased equipment by paying $2,000 cash and executing a note payable for $5,000.
   March 4 Purchased office supplies for $710 cash.
   March 5 Billed a client for $9,000 of design services completed.
   March 6 Received $7,600 on account for the services previously recorded.

   What is the balance in Cash on March 6?

   		$14,890
   		$13,890
   		$15,890
   		$15,600

5 points

Question 6

1. 
   
   Donaldson’s Delivery Company began operations on January 1, 2019. The following Trial Balance was prepared on December 31, 2019.
   Donaldson’s Delivery Service Company Trial Balance December 31, 2019Account Title Debit CreditCash $15,500Accounts Receivable 8,000Prepaid Rent 2,400Office Supplies 1,400Land 25,000Building 32,000Equipment 23,000Accounts Payable $10,400Unearned Revenue 2,500Notes Payable 20,000Donaldson, Capital 57,000Donaldson, Withdrawals 6,400Service Revenue 83,900Salaries Expense 28,000Rent Expense 18,000Truck Expense 12,400Office Expense 1,700 ________Total $173,800 $173,800

   What is the net income for the year ending December 31, 2019?

   		$17,400
   		$23,800
   		$26,300
   		$74,400

5 points

Question 7

1. 
   
   Which of the following accounts increases with a debit?

   		Prepaid rent
   		Interest payable
   		Accounts payable
   		Owner, capital

5 points

Question 8

1. 
   
   A business performs services for $26,000 and collects cash from the customer. Which of the following accounts will be debited?

   		Cash
   		Accounts receivable
   		Service revenue
   		Accounts payable

5 points

Question 9

1. 
   
   Accounts payable is a(n) __________ account and has a normal __________ balance.

   		liability; debit
   		asset; debit
   		liability; credit
   		asset; credit

5 points

Question 10

1. 
   
   A sole proprietorship has the following transactions:

   The business received $20,000 cash from the owner in exchange for capital.
   The business purchased $600 of office supplies on account.
   The business purchased $3,000 of furniture on account.
   The business performed services to various clients totaling $11,000 on account.
   The business paid $3,000 for salaries expense and $4,500 for rent expense.
   The business paid $600 to a supplier for the office supplies purchased earlier.
   The business collected $2,000 from one of its clients for services rendered earlier in the month.

   At the end of the month, all journal entries are posted to the ledger. Accounts Payable will appear as which of the following?

5 points

Question 11

1. 
   
   Which of the following is the record holding all the accounts, the changes in those accounts, and their balances?

   		Source document
   		Journal
   		Ledger
   		Trial balance

5 points

Question 12

1. 
   
   Which of the following accounts is an asset?

   		Salaries expense
   		Accounts payable
   		Service revenue
   		Prepaid expense

5 points

Question 13

1. 
   
   Which of the following is a liability account?

   		Prepaid advertising
   		Cash
   		Building
   		Unearned rent

5 points

Question 14

1. 
   
   A shortened form of the ledger is called a __________.

   		working account
   		summary account
   		chart of accounts
   		T-account

5 points

Question 15

1. 
   
   The accounts payable account of Waterford Company has the following postings:

   

   Calculate the ending balance of the account.

   		$14,000 credit
   		$18,000 debit
   		$18,000 credit
   		$7,000 debit

5 points

Question 16

1. 
   
   Which of the following sequences states the order in which accounts are listed on a trial balance?

   		Equity → Assets → Liabilities
   		Liabilities → Assets → Equity
   		Assets → Equity → Liabilities
   		Assets → Liabilities → Equity

5 points

Question 17

1. 
   
   The account title used for recording a written promise that a customer will pay the business a fixed amount of money and interest by a certain date in the future is a(n) __________.

   		prepaid note
   		notes payable
   		notes receivable
   		accounts receivable

5 points

Question 18

1. 
   
   Which of the following represents the correct flow of accounting data?

   		Transactions occur; transactions are analyzed; transactions are journalized and posted; source documents are prepared
   		Transactions occur; source documents are prepared; transactions are journalized and posted;
   		Transactions occur; source documents are prepared; transactions are analyzed; transactions are journalized and posted
   		Source documents are prepared; transactions occur; transactions are analyzed; transactions are journalized and posted

5 points

Question 19

1. 
   
   For owner, capital, the category of account and its normal balance is __________.

   		equity and a credit balance
   		assets and a debit balance
   		equity and a debit balance
   		assets and a credit balance

5 points

Question 20

1. 
   
   A listing of all accounts in numerical order is called a(n) __________.

   		ledger
   		journal
   		income statement
   		chart of accounts

Please reply to both POST 1: and POST 2: discussion posting with at least 150 words

Required

• Chapters 12 and Sections 13.0, 13.2, 13.3, 13.6, 13.17, and 13.19 in Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling
• Part 1: Chapter 6 in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)

Recommended

• Chapters 8 & 9 in Fundamentals of Project Management
• Kirpes, C. (2014). Evaluating the use of scheduling techniques: Critical chain project management. IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings, 3878-3884.
• Nelson, R. R., & Morris, M. G. (2014). IT project estimation: Contemporary practices and management guidelines. MIS Quarterly Executive, 13(1), 15-30.
• Richardson, D. A. (2018). Digital downside. PM Network, 32, 26-27.

POST 1:

Module 2: Discussion Forum

Good afternoon team,

Scheduling is a very important piece of project management. In order
to get all the pieces put together in a logical format, and to get an
idea of how long a project is going to take requires scheduling. I
prefer to use the Gantt chart. I have not been using it long, but it
has shown to be a valuable tool. I like how it identifies the critical
path visually and how each activity within the path is laid out.

This tool can aid project scheduling in multiple ways. Visually it
is easy to read. It shows when a project starts and finishes,
identifies all activities within the project and how long the project
will take. Dates and activities can be easily adjusted, and the result
of the adjustments are immediate. According to (Kashyap, 2019) it
improves communication between team members, it helps to avoid resource
overload, it can measure the progress of the work being performed, it
provides for a visual of any overlapping activities and it promotes
transparency of the project.

Since I just recently started integrating this software into my team,
I have not used it on a current project. A Gantt chart would have been
most beneficial in the creating of a most recent training we created
that is a 6-week process. There were a lot of different steps and
processes that needed to be managed in order to keep the process moving
and to ensure a “go-live” date. The training was completed but there
were a lot of missing parts that could have easily been avoided should
we have had a better layout of the project initially.

-Amy

References:

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controling (11th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kashyap, S. (2019, October 1). Top 11 Benefits of Gantt Charts in
Project Management. Retrieved October 13, 2019, from
https://www.proofhub.com/articles/benefits-of-gantt-charts.

POST 2:

Deadlines
are probably one of the few things consistent with all PMs. It doesn’t
matter which field of industry from construction and R&D to the
medical field, deadlines drive production. A schedule is necessary to
achieve any significant tangible results by a deadline. Hence, the
importance of employing a scheduling technique to achieve the desired
results.

CPM

Critical Patch Method (CPM) is a technique that determines how much
time is needed to complete a project. In CPM, key tasks known as
critical tasks are found. Once the critical tasks are known the
critical path will be established and the earliest date an event can
start, or end can be identified by determining the normal time it takes
to complete each event (Kerzner, 2013). Due to the thoroughness of CPM,
it is often used in complex projects. The intensive labor and detail
planning in completing a CPM is also considered a disadvantage with
smaller projects because of the complex nature of a CPM.

Example

If I were assigned a project of relocating my entire organization
from one building to another, I would employ CPM. Assuming I had to
find a new site, plan for renovation/updates at the new site, install
furniture and prepare the building with required necessities for
operations I think the best way to identify interdependencies and stay
on schedule would be to utilize CPM.

References:

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controling (11th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.