Optimism versus Pessimism

Some feel that families today are in deep trouble because they are different from their own family of origin. Pessimists point to the high divorce rate, increasing number of children born out of wedlock, and mothers entering the workforce as signs of family decline. Optimists feel the wide variety of acceptable relationships available allow people to create a family that is best for themselves. People who know the scientific facts as well as their personal feelings about marriage and family are in a better position to understand themselves and build successful and satisfying intimate relationships.

Do you feel optimistic or pessimistic about families today? Do you tend to think about the negative impacts of families changing or the positive?

Look at the following website that gives suggestions for strengthening the family.
http://www.fatherhood.org/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Share with the class one way that you uncovered to strengthen families by exploring the website. Connect the information you found to the characteristics of strong and resilient families discussed within the textbook.

PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS, I MUST COMPLETE A PEER REVIEW ON THE BELOW. Thanks

Please demonstrate critical thinking abilities. No fewer than 100 words for post.

For this response, should outside sources be used to support the content within the postings, proper in-text citations and correctly formatted references should be prepared consistent with the APA (6th edition). The list of references should be physically positioned at the end of the postings.

1. You own a nonunion company with 93 nonexempt employees. All of these employees pack books into boxes for shipment to customers throughout the United States. Because of wide differences in performance, you have decided to try performance appraisal, something never done before. Until now, you have given every worker the same size increase. Now you want to measure performance and reward the best performers with bigger increases. Without any further information, based on your research which type of appraisal format do you think would be the most appropriate? Justify your answer. Do you anticipate any complaints, or other comments, from employees after you implement your new system?

Performance appraisals are used to evaluate performances. “Performance appraisal can both make a business more efficient and help keep employees motivated” (Kondrasuk, 2011). In order to evaluate the employees in this case, who are packing the books into the boxes and to decide their reward based on the performance, I would use the standard rating scale. It helps “evaluate employees on some absolute standard rather than relative to other employees” (Milkovich, Newman, & Gerhart, 2014). Behavior ratings and rankings wouldn’t work in this exercise. This particular position does not need the employee to have much of people skills. It’s more on how well they can pack those boxes in a productive manner. Rankings also wouldn’t work because that serves no purpose in seeing how each individual is doing his part and how productive he is.

Rating scales can be used in performance management to indicate the employee’s level of performance. The standard rating scale with adjective anchors allows the employer to rate each individual employee based off of their skills on, for example, communication with the team or their teamwork. Other skills can be rated based on what is important in that position. These scales can be used to provide quantitative assessments, they are easy for a manager to do and it works to show the difference in employees work skills (SHRM, 2014).

There will be complains and comments from employees. However, the only way to motivate them and have them really work at their best, is by giving them something in return. You perform well for the company and the company will notice through the evaluations and return the favor by giving increases.

References

Kondrasuk J.N. (2011). So what would an Ideal Performance Appraisal Look Like. University of Portland. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, vol.12 (1).

Milkovich, G., Newman, J., & Gerhart, B. (2014). Compensation (11th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw- Hill.

SHRM. (2014). Performance Management: Which performance rating scale is best, and what should an employer consider in adopting a performance rating scale? Retrieved from Society for Human Resource Management website: https://www.shrm.org

Baldrige doc
(One Question, four parts)

A local cable company, Zeron, has had a
monopoly on cable services in the County. As a result, the number of
customers has grown significantly. In order to keep up with the high
call volumes, Zeron has outsourced several agent and customer service
positions. There has been a high level of customer complaints over the
past few years, both to the company and to the Public Service
Commission, which oversees the cable company. In the past decade,
without any competition for cable services, Zeron has chosen to do
little or nothing to reduce the complaints or attempted to correct the
causes of the complaints.  The areas with the highest percent of
complaints include: long hold times, complaints about the customer
service agents (apathetic, unprofessional, unresponsive, and not
knowledgeable), inaccurate billing and extra fees, failing to meet
scheduled appointments, service disruptions, and an unacceptable level
of complaints not being resolved on first call. See below for examples of common complaints submitted.

There have been many articles written
in the local papers and discussed by the media that Zeron’s employees–
the customer service agents, technical staff, field staff and even
management– have failed in meeting the needs of their customers.  Staff
absenteeism has grown and the annual employee satisfaction survey has
shown that employee morale and job satisfaction are at all time lows.
Additionally, a recent customer service survey of all public service
providers in the county ranked Zeron last with an average score of 2.2
on a scale of 5 in overall customer service. 

Recently the Public Service Commission
approved two new cable providers for the county and they have started
making deep cuts into Zeron’s market share. In
fact, the competitors’ marketing and advertising has focused on
excellent customer service and exceeding customer expectations. The
company has requested assistance from your consulting firm to help it
improve its service quality and, therefore, stop the loss of its
customer base and possibly win back some of its lost customers.

Support and be specific in your responses.

What specific actions would you take to improve Zeron’s service structure and its overall level of service?

What step-by-step approach would you recommend in creating a customer-centric culture throughout Zeron?

Utilizing the criteria for Category 3.1 and 3.2 (b) of Baldrige, what actions would you take to build better customer support and customer relationship management (CRM).

What specific actions would you take to improve the overall morale, sprit of service and commitment of Zeron’s employees?

Common Zeron Complaints

1. I put in a service call on April
17. Today is April 20 and I have not had any service for phone, cable
and internet. I have called and I got different answers of why I have no
service by three different service agents. I know that I am just one
customer and I will no longer be a customer. Thank you for the worst
service award.

2. Late for Service Calls: Zeron
scheduled a service tech to my address on Thursday, 29 March, between
07:30 AM and 08:30 AM. The service tech was an hour and a half late and
didn’t install the additional line in a back bedroom that was requested
on the initial work order that I placed. No one called to advise me
that the service rep would be an hour and a half late. I had to contact
Zeron to inquire as to what happened and why the service tech was not on
time. This lateness by techs is typical and unacceptable.

3. Outages happen but Zeron’s dismal
failure to quickly update its messge service about the outage just
magnifies the problem. A quick message at 1-800-ZeronCC acknowledging a
problem ensures customers that they are working on it. It took them 34
minutes to answer my call. I think Zeron owes customers prompt service.
We understand outages happen but not sloppy customer service.

4. I noticed an increase in my bill,
called to inquire and was told that an increase was due for that month
and beyond. I stated that I wanted to reduce my service and avoid any
higher monthly cost. I was placed on hold, transferred from one to
another representative, placed on hold again. After about thirty
minutes, I called again, was placed on hold (ignored) again. After more
than an hour and twenty minutes on the phone (holding), I never received
any satisfaction. Zeron has earned a notorious reputation for
disrespect and disregard for their customers.

• Detecting unethical practices at supplier factories, to include monitoring and compliance, is a major challenge to say the least. Yet, wages drive cost and it’s an absolute necessity to maintain the lowest cost in production of any good. Or is it??? Arguments do not have to be in a specific format, but must contain multiple views that support or argue against the questions asked below..
• This week, focus on debate! Start or select a fellow student’s side, and either support, or argue against, that position.
• But be constructive in your approach..
• Discuss how important is it for companies such as Nike and Wal-Mart that source extensively from foreign suppliers located in countries where wages are low and substandard working conditions are common to institute supplier codes of conduct and undertake programs to monitor and ensure supplier compliance with these codes of conduct? Would you recommend that a company join the Fair Labor Association and use FLA’s standards and program of factory audits instead of trying to set up its own supplier monitoring and compliance effort? What can a company do to detect and combat the efforts of unscrupulous foreign suppliers to deceive inspection/compliance teams?

 Walden University Writing Center. (2015c). Scholarly writing:
Overview. Retrieved from
http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/sc…
 Walden University. (2015a). About. Retrieved from
http://www.waldenu.edu/about
 Walden University Writing Center. (2015e). Webinars:
Overview & calendar. Retrieved from
http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/we…
 Document: How to Create Journal Entries (PDF)
Media
 Walden University. (2015c). Scholars of change [Multimedia file].
Retrieved from http://www.waldenu.edu/about/socialchange/scholars-of-change
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2012a). Alumni residency

Social Change Vision: Community, Professional, and Academic
By Day 4
Post a description of your vision for social change. Include how your
personal vision complements Walden University’s vision and mission,
as well as how Walden University might help you achieve your
professional and academic goals. Then, describe a social change
effort that is currently going on in your community or an effort you
think needs to take place in your community. Explain how this effort
may impact your personal and professional goals—and ignite your
passion to be part of the helping profession