what to do and not do. Problem Solving Innovative ways to solve problems: open source science • Soft Skills Reviews provide multiple choice questions that test students’ understanding of the unit material. • Critical Thinking Questions pose topics for discussion that require analysis and evaluation. Many also challenge students to consider and react to re … Purchase answer to see full attachment

College of Administrative and Financial Sciences MGT 312 Term-II, 2020-2021 Assignment 1 Deadline: End of Week 7, 06/03/2021 @ 23:59 Course Name: Student’s Name: Course Code: Student’s ID Number: Semester: II CRN: Academic Year: 1440/1441 H For Instructor’s Use only Instructor’s Name: Students’ Grade: Marks Obtained/Out of Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY • The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated folder. • Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted. • Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented, marks may be reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page. • Students must mention question number clearly in their answer. • Late submission will NOT be accepted. • Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions. • All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism). • Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted. Course Learning Outcomes-Covered • • • • Demonstrate a solid understanding of decision making process for complex issues pertaining to business environment both internally and externally. (1.2) Identify ethical issues and dilemmas that businesses often face and employ ethical standards in all manners and circumstances. (1.4 & 3.3) Apply and analyze various concepts of problem solving in diverse contexts and business situations. (1.5 & 2.2) Identify and analyze different perspectives on understanding problems for different situations. (3.1) Critical Thinking Case studies: Mr. Khaled is the HR manager in Alkhalili Company. Alkhalili Company is in construction business. In COVID-19, construction industry were affected a lot. Alkhalili Company were also affected and lost several projects. Some projects were gone in heavy loss. Company has decided to downsize its work force. KHALID was in such a situation that telling the truth about staff layoff to his friends will make him disloyal to the company. At the same time hiding about staff layoff from his close friend will make Khaled disloyal towards his friend. In this case, Khaled may find it difficult to find out all facts especially the time workers would take to find a new Job .Khaled, the workers, His Boss, society, the company are the affected stakeholders. The right of both the workers and company to know and hide about layoff and the loyalty that company and workers expect from Khaled are the main ethical issues Khaled face. The consequences of telling and hiding about the staff layoff would be, Khaled may lose his job, workers will get time to find other placement, Khaled will remain in good book of management or workers have to suffer from sudden job loss. Anyway, before reaching a conclusion Khaled should have to think about the duties towards company as an employee also about how society is going to value him by the decision he take. However, Khaled can warn both employees and management like not to make any big financial commitment or about the after effect of hiding the layoff truth from employees. At last Khaled must take a decision considering all these factors and should have the gut to stand on the decision taken by him. Assignment Question(s): 1. Identify the problem. What are the other sub problems? (Marks 05) [Word count: 100-300] [0.5 Marks] a. Main problem: …………………………………….. b. Other problems: 2. Write the problem statement document? [Word count: 200-400] [1 Mark] 3. Identify the Cause of the problem through 5 Why Technique [Word count: 150-300] [1.5 Mark] a. Why-1 b. Why-2 c. Why-3 d. Why-4 e. Why-5 4. Gather information: What information should you gather that would be helpful to know before making a decision? [Word count: 200-400] [0.5 Marks] 5. Consider the various choices of solution? [Word count: 100-300] [0.5 Marks] 6. What are ethical issues in this case? How you can resolve these ethical issues? [Word count: 200-400] [1 Mark] ILLUSTRATED COURSE GUIDES Problem Solving and Decision Making Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace This page intentionally left blank ILLUSTRATED COURSE GUIDES Problem Solving and Decision Making Jeff Butterfield Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace Illustrated Course Guide: Problem Solving and Decision Making— Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace Jeff Butterfield Executive Editor: Marjorie Hunt Associate Acquisitions Editor: Brandi Shailer Senior Product Manager: Christina Kling Garrett © 2010 Course Technology, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Associate Product Manager: Michelle Camisa Editorial Assistant: Kim Klasner Director of Marketing: Cheryl Costantini Marketing Manager: Ryan DeGrote Marketing Coordinator: Kristen Panciocco Contributing Author: Lisa Ruffolo Developmental Editor: Lisa Ruffolo For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706 For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to permission request@cengage.com Content Project Manager: Heather Furrow Copy Editor: Mark Goodin Library of Congress Control Number: 2009929612 Proofreader: Harold Johnson ISBN-10: 1-4390-4114-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-4390-4114-7 Indexer: Elizabeth Cunningham Print Buyer: Fola Orekoya Cover Artist: Mark Hunt Composition: Pre-Press PMG Course Technology 20 Channel Center Street Boston, Massachusetts 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. To learn more about Course Technology, visit www.cengage.com/coursetechnology To learn more about Cengage Learning, visit www.cengage.com Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.ichapters.com All photos © Jupiterimages Corporation unless otherwise noted Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 About the Series Students work hard to earn certificates and degrees to prepare for a particular career—but do they have the soft skills necessary to succeed in today’s digital workplace? Can they communicate effectively? Present themselves professionally? Work in a team? Industry leaders agree there is a growing need for these essential soft skills; in fact, they are critical to a student’s success in the workplace. Without them, they will struggle and even fail. However, students entering the workforce who can demonstrate strong soft skills have a huge competitive advantage. The Illustrated Course Guides—Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace series is designed to help you teach these important skills, better preparing your students to enter a competitive marketplace. Here are some of the key elements you will find in each book in the series: • Focused content allows for flexibility: Each book in the series is short, focused, and covers only the most essential skills related to the topic. You can use the modular content in standalone courses or workshops or you can integrate it into existing courses. • Visual design keeps students engaged: Our unique pedagogical design presents each skill on two facing pages, with key concepts and instructions on the left and illustrations on the right. This keeps students of all levels on track. • Varied activities put skills to the test: Each book includes hands-on activities, team exercises, critical thinking questions, and scenario-based activities to allow students to put their skills to work and demonstrate their retention of the material. • Online activities engage students: Each book comes with a companion Web site, providing engaging online activities that give students instant feedback and reinforce the skills in the book. These online activities can also be graded and tracked. Read the Preface for more details on the key pedagogical elements and features of this book. We hope the books in this series help your students gain the critical soft skills they need to succeed in whatever career they choose. Advisory Board We thank our Advisory Board who gave us their opinions and guided our decisions as we developed the first titles in this series. They are as follows: Debi Griggs, Instructor of Business and Business Technology, Bellevue College Jean Insinga, Professor of Information Systems, Middlesex Community College Gary Marrer, CIS Faculty, Glendale Community College Linda Meccouri, Professor, Springfield Technical Community College Lynn Wermers, Chair, Computer and Information Sciences, North Shore Community College Nancy Wilson Head, Executive Director Teaching & Learning Technologies, Purdue University v Preface Welcome to Illustrated Course Guides: Problem Solving and Decision Making—Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace. If this is your first experience with the Illustrated Course Guides, you’ll see that this book has a unique design: each skill is presented on two facing pages, with Essential Elements on the left and illustrations and examples pictured on the right. The layout makes it easy to learn a skill without having to read a lot of text and flip pages to see an illustration. The design also makes this a great reference after the course is over! See the illustration on the right to learn more about the pedagogical and design elements of a typical lesson. Concise text that introduces the basic principles in the lesson and integrates the brief case Each 2-page spread fostudy (indicated by the cuses on a single skill. Eachpaintbrush icon). two-page spread focuses on a single skill. UNIT A Problem Solving ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS Focused on the Essentials Each two-page lesson presents only the most important information about the featured lesson skill. The left page of the lesson presents 5 or 6 key Essential Elements, which are the most important guidelines that a student needs to know about the skill. Absorbing and retaining a limited number of key ideas makes it more likely that students will retain and apply the skill in a real-life situation. Hands-On Activities Every lesson contains a You Try It exercise, where students demonstrate their understanding of the lesson skill by completing a task that relates to it. The steps in the You Try It exercises are often general, requiring that students use critical thinking to complete the task. QUICK TIP In many cases, symptoms are the result of different problems. Simplifying Complex Problems The complexity of organizational problems makes them difficult to solve, especially if many people are involved and the stakes are high. Complex problems are those that have no clear boundaries, are unique, or have no single optimal solution. Frequently, these problems also involve multiple stakeholders with competing agendas. Most complex problems actually consist of smaller subproblems that affect each other in ways that complicate the larger problems. When you are facing an intricate or difficult problem, deconstruct it first. You can then manage and solve the smaller elements more easily. Table A-6 summarizes the do’s and don’ts for simplifying complex problems. After researching the travel industry, examining tour data, and talking to colleagues, the problem of Quest’s declining sales seems more complex than ever. Grace Wong suggests that you simplify the problem by dividing it into smaller parts. 1. Identify the major symptoms As you begin to work on a complex problem, identify as many obvious symptoms as you can. Ask others for their observations and create a list of their suggestions. Work backwards from each symptom to identify its root causes. In the case of Quest Specialty Travel, you might observe that overall bookings have decreased, that net profits have dropped, and that the number of people calling to inquire about future travel is also smaller. Each of these is a symptom to consider as you work to solve the problem. 2. Consider each problem individually Although they may be related, problems are often best resolved when considered independently. For each subproblem that you identify, find its root cause and apply a solution. However, don’t disregard related subproblems. Determine how they are related and how changes to one might affect the others. 3. Rank the subproblems QUICK TIP Sometimes, the symptoms of one problem are the root cause of another. QUICK TIP Breaking down a large, complex problem into smaller, solvable problems is called divide and conquer. YOU TRY IT Consider how each subproblem contributes to the overall level of dissatisfaction. Ask yourself which is causing the most significant deviation from what you want or expect. Some subproblems might be perceived as more troublesome than others. Rank these from most to least important. Focus your efforts on solving the problems that will have the most effect. Figure A-7 ranks the four subproblems for Quest Specialty Travel considering three criteria: tour value, whether changes can be made immediately, and customer satisfaction. 4. Look for interdependencies Subproblems are often tightly interrelated. Consider how the various issues affect one another, and look for interdependencies. Solving a seemingly small problem might also solve a larger one at the same time. 5. Delegate subproblems You might not have the authority, ability, or resources to properly address each part of a complex problem, so identify others who can solve part of the problem for you. Delegating portions of the problem to people who can more effectively resolve them magnifies your efforts and contributes to your success. 1. Use a word processor such as Microsoft Office Word to open the file A-5.doc provided with your Data Files, and save it as Complex.doc in the location where you store your Data Files 2. Read the contents of Complex.doc, which describe a complicated problem 3. Separate the problem into smaller parts using the guidelines in this lesson 4. Save and close Complex.doc, then submit it to your instructor as requested Problem Solving 12 Identifying and Defining Problems Real World Advice and Examples To help put lesson skills in context, many lessons contain yellow shaded boxes that present real-world stories pulled from today’s workplace. Some lessons also contain Do’s and Don’ts tables, featuring key guidelines on what to do and not do in certain workplace situations relating to the lesson skill. The Technology@Work lesson at the end of every unit covers Web 2.0 tools and other technologies relating to the unit. vi Short introduction reviews key lesson points and presents a real-world case study to engage students. Hints as well as troubleshooting advice, right where you need it – next to the step itself. Quickly accessible summaries of key terms, toolbar buttons, or keyboard alternatives connected with the lesson material. Students can refer easily to this information when working on their own projects at a later time. Lessons and Exercises Every lesson features large illustrations of examples discussed in the lesson. The lessons use Quest Specialty Travel, a fictional adventure travel company, as the case study. The assignments on the light purple pages at the end of each unit increase in difficulty. Data files and case studies provide a variety of interesting and relevant business applications. Assignments include: FIGURE A-7: Breaking a complex problem into smaller parts Main problem: Decreasing tour sales Criteria Tour Value Price Promotion Quality Frequency Subproblems Immediate Customer Improvement Satisfaction 0 0 1 2 Ratings of how well each solution could solve the subproblem 2 0 0 1 Score 1 0 1 2 3 0 2 5 Offering tours more frequently makes the most difference in solving the main problem Total of ratings for each subproblem TABLE A-6: Complex problem do’s and don’ts guideline do don’t Symptoms Identify as many symptoms as possible Don’t discard suggested symptoms from anyone Main problems Break each large problem into smaller problems Don’t disregard related problems and subproblems Subproblems • • • • • Don’t try to solve all the subproblems yourself • Don’t overlook small problems—solving a small problem might solve a larger one at the same time Rank the contributing problems Focus on the problems that have the most effect Discover how one problem is related to another Divide tasks among a team Imagine competing for substantial prizes by solving problems. That’s what a 2008 report by the National Research Council recommended to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency overseeing physical science research. The report encourages the NSF to offer prizes of $200,000 to $2 million “to encourage more complex innovations” in problem solving. Taking this approach one step further is InnoCentive, a company that links organizations that have problems to people all over the world, who are called solvers. For example, InnoCentive circulated a problem the Oil Spill Recovery Institute of Cordova, Alaska, was having: how to keep oil in Alaska storage tanks from freezing. John Davis, a chemist in Bloomington, Illinois, applied his knowledge of concrete to oil—if you keep both vibrating, they stay in their liquid form—and received $20,000 for his solution. According to Dwayne Spradlin, president and chief executive, InnoCentive began as an in-house innovation “incubator” at the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The company posted problems online that its employees could not solve. This problem-solving approach, often called open source science, has been successful from the start. “Most of our companies tell us they have a one-third or better solve rate on their problems and that is more cost-effective than anything they could have done internally,” Spradlin said. Karim Lakhani, a professor at Harvard Business School who has studied InnoCentive, says much of the success is based on the idea that solutions can come from anywhere or anyone. Dr. Lakhani said, “The further the problem was from the solver’s expertise, the more likely they were to solve it,” often by applying knowledge or equipment developed for another purpose. Source: Dean, Cornelia, “If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone,” New York Times, July 22, 2008. Identifying and Defining Problems News to Use boxes provide real-world stories related to the lesson topic. Problem Solving 13 Do’s & Don’ts tables present key tips for what to do and not do. Problem Solving Innovative ways to solve problems: open source science • Soft Skills Reviews provide multiple choice questions that test students’ understanding of the unit material. • Critical Thinking Questions pose topics for discussion that require analysis and evaluation. Many also challenge students to consider and react to re …
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