Employment

There are a number of distinctive HER policies and procedures which elevate DEW as a preferred employer by employees. DEW has several mentoring programs which support the development and training of new staff. The programs are an Important way to engage new hires into the DEW culture, and this could be their first professional job out of college (Trademarks Animation, n. D. ). In a 2010 interview, Trademarks Animation’s Head of HER is Daniel Sweethearts stated, “In a rapidly growing environment, that can be difficult for a new person to grasp because it can all be overwhelming” (Burns & Sweethearts, 2010).

The Animation film industry Is a complex business with a lot of “moving” parts. DEW flimflamming Is a timely and expensive undertaking which starts with someone’s Idea and storyboards (Wolff, 2003). This production will involve many people who steer the process?from the in- house staff, freelance writers, technology, and their reference library of other work. The animated production process, creating storyboards, writing and revising scripts, drafting artwork, character creation, for a “full-length feature film can take approximately three to four years” (Trademarks Animation, 2011).

This extensive recess also employs “small collaborative teams that are responsible for preparing storyline and ideas for the initial stages of development” (Trademarks Animation, 2011). During these intense early stages of a project new hires are placed in mentoring initiative program. Mentoring supports the overall project while also providing direction to the newest staff members. Thus, “ensuring that ideas follow the best creative path within a desired budget and schedule parameters” (Trademarks Animation, 2011).

The first 90 days are In orientation, but afterwards new employees are trained on the DEW “proprietary software” and attend “welcome session hosted by CEO Jeffrey Guttenberg” (Henchman, 201 AAA). There are many different mentoring programs at DEW. These programs primarily focus on recruitment of mid-level talent, new college graduates, entry level professionals, and the highly specialized (Trademarks Animation, n. D. ). All of the DEW mentoring programs pair the new hire with an experienced staff member.

The Henchman (AAA) article, discusses a recent graduate In the DEW mentoring program. The trainee Is a Visual Artist, named Each Glenn, and Is coming up on the end of his training (AAA). Henchman (AAA) continues describing, the Visual Artist’s downtime allowed him to be able to help his mentor, who was having difficulties on a “snowball” scene (AAA). The mentor asked for suggestions, and the trainee had a chance to learn more about the scene while helping (Henchman, AAA).

The trainee Each, explained, “I’d show him what I’d come up with, and he’d show me what he had been doing. So we Just kept that process up, and coming over to each other’s desk and showing the progress we had until we merged these little effects into the snowball” (Henchman, AAA). Mentoring examples like this show how there is a great opportunity for learning from both the trainee and the mentor. This also levels the playing field and allows the trainee to feel they are a “peer” with equal status.

There are mentoring programs that DEW uses to recruit entry level graduates and then pair them with the seasoned employees. One of the mentoring programs Is scouts potential new talent in “Art/illustration, Design, Character Animation, Computer Graphics, and Media Studies graduates from colleges and universities around the globe” (Trademarks Animation, n. D. ). In addition to the scouting, they also offer training programs and coaching for these entry level positions. DEW also offers in-house digital training and artistic development training programs available for all employees.

There is another outreach mentoring program for entry level professionals and recent college graduates referred to as the “Challenges/ Initiatives” that select new hire to participate in one of four (4) different programs; The Story Initiative Program, Character FIX Initiative, FIX Challenge, and Character AD Challenge (Trademarks Animation, n. D. ). These four mentoring programs offer a broad range f topics and discussions on; how an animated film pipeline is organized, the principles of animation, interpreting character designs, and how to incorporate them into the animation process.

Each of these training program initiatives supports the trainees learning in the specific areas chosen. The program’s training objectives are implemented over the first 90 to 180 days, depending on the program. The mentor programs pair a trainee with a seasoned and specialized mentor. The trainee has to perform duties in a simulated training environment. The training environment is identical but separate from the real projects that the mentor is on. The mentor observes the trainees activity, and the decisions made. The environment is parallel where the trainee can experience the same challenges as the mentor.

The trainee has to use their independent Judgment and their skills Just as they would have to if working on the actual project. This trainee environment provides these rich opportunities, which are “Critical to the success and learning new and potentially foreign concepts, but also the ability to work within a production team environment and seek advice from experts (Trademarks Animation, n. D. ). In addition, this is all appending in a training environment, so there is more flexibility and time to discuss situations where the trainee wants clarification.

Additional concepts discussed include key ideas important to the deformation process, programming procedural controls, and techniques to successfully present ideas and results to both creative and technical audiences (Trademarks, 2014). Data’s mentoring program seems to go beyond the entry-level and middle staff to the higher levels of the executive suite. Several DEW female executives served on a panel. The ladies’ group was called the Bay Area Women in Film & Media, and the event was at Trademarks. All women panel of DEW executives discussed workplace culture and described how it was to work in a male dominated field.

Each executive description of Data’s culture was supportive, fun, rewarding, and better than other studios they had worked. There was one unidentified executive who was speaking about being a woman in DEW “Mans world” and she enjoyed working with the men, and it was special to work with Spielberg (Cited). Implications Trademarks Animation’s Head of HER is Daniel Sweethearts, and his team performs mid-project reviews and boasts a 97% retention rate (Henchman, Bibb). After 90 says the employee is brought in for a meeting with HER to discuss “best practices,” experiences elsewhere” (Henchman, Bibb).

This HER practice of meeting face to face after 90 days for their feedback, can help improve nonbinding, and also relays an important message to the employee. The new employee has a forum for two-way communications and a valued as a new member of the team. This communication forum is important as it is early in their DEW career and will likely set the tone. DEW provides resources for new staff to engage and to better get acclimated. There are also employee training programs to help increase employee knowledge base.

For the technologists, they have established in-house digital training and artistic development training programs. In order to recruit and retain talented creative and technical personnel, they have established relationships with the top animation schools and industry trade organizations (Trademarks, n. D. ). Sweethearts, describes how the mentoring at DEW can forge a “tribal connection” between the new hire and the veteran, when it is done early in the menthe’s employment (Henchman, Bibb). This employee investment at all staffing levels is a way for employers to demonstrate their support of the employees.

Experts agree; companies must make their employees feel engaged and help them feel like they are performing meaningful work (Rickets, 2008). It seems employees are “sensitive” and will “react” positively or not positively according to the treatment they perceive their employer gives them. Corporate HER consulting expert explains, “If an organization does not make conscious efforts to not only onboard new team members, but also to create cultural moments that give them an experience?not Just the language?of the vision, then it is very difficult for them to feel bonded” (Elliot, 2013).

It can be seen how Trademarks Animation integrates the experience of their seasoned mentors to train new staff. They also are able to recruit and retain employees, with their “established relationships with the top animation schools and industry trade groups” (Trademarks Animation Form ASK, 2011). From Straightness’s discussion, part of the importance of mentoring the newest staff is to help them understand and learn Data’s culture and also to coach them in handling projects. He also mentions, “many of these individuals will go on to be leaders within DEW while others may go on to be leaders in the Animation Industry’ (Henchman, Bibb).

Sweethearts says, “We hire so many experienced people that we get lots of interesting ideas from other companies,” and add, “we hire a good number of recent graduates, so we get fresh eyes”(Henchman, Bibb). The resources that DEW puts into training new hires and pairing them with senior level employee shows they want to invest in their staff. This type of investing in staff with mentoring programs, training programs, and two way communication can be plenty reasons they are a “great place to work,” and other companies can learn to invest in staff development an result in ordainment.

Properly training staff will initially require more resources, manpower, and management coordination, but in the long run the company outperforms the competition. Research supports the idea that those companies that outperform their competition have also retained their most talented employees (Fuller, Gerhard & Scott, 2003). This further adds to the point that DEW is investing in their team with mentoring programs, training, and executive mentoring. This is a lesson worth learning for any CEO looking to increase the bottom line and provide Job

This report will initially analyse the article ‘Flea enterprise’ by Charles Handy. Second it will examine the changing patterns of work. Next the report will clarify how the ‘psychological contract’ will change for future workers, and discuss some of the Organisational Behaviour approaches which future management could use to try and point out how the behaviour of the workforce might change in the future. Finally the report will comment upon how the recruitment and selection processes in Organisations might adapt to the ever-changing patterns of the workforce.

Basically Handy states in the article ‘Flea enterprise’ that the large organisations, Elephant are now reliant on the Fleas, which are the small independent companies that do work for the Elephants for a fee (of which they can charge a high amount as long as their skills are up to date). More and more people are becoming Fleas as it is more cost effective and they do not limit themselves to one company giving them the flexibility to do the hours that they wish.

Handy points out the prophecy of Karl Marx, because he stated that society would not be equal and that there would always be a disadvantage to the lower realms of society unless they could take control of the working environment, which is exactly what the fleas are doing, taking control of the working environment. The Elephant will lose its power and the Fleas will have the overall control on the market, being able to choose the price and time- within limits- as they will now be in competition with other Fleas. The Fleas will have all the skills and technology to deal with the requirement of the Elephant.

The Fleas will leave the Elephant only to band together for safety making less competition and giving them greater control over the Elephant. The Fleas will develop and grow if they keep their skills up to date which may lead to restrictions within their given market, for example Computer Engineering. Furthermore if the Elephants want to keep good Fleas working for them, they will offer better working environment and freedom as well as a good wage. Change can be studied on many different levels: individual, group, and organisation, social and global.

Organisational change influences conditions of work, occupational identities and divisions, the training and experience of employees and hierarchical relationships. One of the main critics has been the English academic Andrew Pettigrew who argues that organisational change should be seen instead as a complex and ‘untidy cocktail’ of rational decision processes, mixed with differences in individual perceptions, stimulated by visionary leadership and spiced with ‘power plays’ and attempts to recruit support and build coalitions behind particular ides and lines of action.

Pettigrew emphasizes the importance of the process of change, which is messy, combining attempts to solve organisational problems with the games of organisational politics. Pettigrew also emphasizes the importance of the context of organisational change. The inner context of change concerns the structure and culture of the organisation and the events in its history that have shaped current attitudes and behaviours. The outer context relates to environmental factors: customer demands, competitor behaviour and economic conditions.

(Organisational Behaviour pp. 476). Jobs were considered for life by both the organisation and the worker, now however the worker could have as many as 19 different jobs in a lifetime, as we look for better working conditions, more pay and shorter hours or flexibility time. Psychological contract will change for many future employees. There are potentially three scenarios that we may face. First, at present day many people complaint about the quality of working life and employment security will decline.

The employment relationship becomes more explicitly transactional and contractual in order to buy-in commitment and the organisation experiences a higher proportion of dysfunctional behaviour. Second scenario reflects a deeper change and a more serious set of issues for HR practitioners. Younger employees may be willing to sign up to a new raison d’etre in their work life. Furthermore the field of organisational behaviour will be forced to go back to basic assumptions and question whether the traditional motivational drivers and their causal effect on organisational behaviour still work.

In the second scenario, this change is considered to be temporary, whereby the presumed links between commitment, participation, satisfaction, motivation and performance have become ‘submerged’ as part of a temporary culture shock or stress-reaction process. In the transition period, the motivational power of traditional job design characteristics and work incentives becomes dulled. Moreover, employees can be seen to ‘input’ various attributes to the ‘new deal’ such as their work values and attitudes, motivational needs, and personal dispositions or competencies.

They are then subjected to various contract formation and breach processes. On the basis of which, attention is turned to a series of ‘output’ or outcomes, such as commitment, job satisfaction, trust and organisation citizenship behaviours. The third scenario presents a more perturbing possibility. The change in motivational drivers becomes permanent. Under this scenario, new work values become solidified and the dynamics of all the psychological processes, such as employee values, motivational needs, attitudes, satisfaction, commitment and trust- will be altered and ‘reset’.

In this scenario what we are witnessing at the millennium is not just the redesign of business processes, but also the redesign of the mechanisms that underpin the psychological contract. Organisational responses to the psychological contract tend to operate at two levels. The first is to engage in a new dialogue with employees (either individually or through specialised processes such as focus group, task forces, etc. ) and to identify their HRM preferences. The second level of responses to the need to renew the psychological contract is to move not just towards local dealing, but also towards individual dealing.

Besides this, voluntary employee increased making Yachted having to hire new technical staff. Having all these employees caused the new employees to lower their productivity. Employees started to feel they were basically doing the same thing every single day. Others didn’t care about consequences and some of them even started having issues from people in other departments. So basically the whole system was “crashed”. Another symptom was that they started giving the employees a higher salary and profit sharing plans, with the hope that this ill address this issue, but it didn’t.

Employee recommendations to their friends so they would join the company, became minimum. This showed the lack of interest that employees had over the company. To address all these symptoms that I explained they would have to take actions and make them quick. Yachted Ltd. Had to first address the rising complaints that the customers had towards the company. To solve this, they would have to apply more than one solution. Between the most important one of all, they would first have to start working on the old system that is applied in the company. As it was shown, bringing new employees might be the cause that is stopped working.

That’s why they should first change the system to make the departments have a better communication between each other and avoid the conflict (Having a lack of communication in a business is not convenient at all). Another problem that was pointed out, was the lack of interest and how employees didn’t feel worried at all about the consequences. Within the new system that will be integrated they should be able to add something up that if you’re not giving the right customer service or you’re being less productive oh get fire or have a really serious consequence.

With this solution we should add a feedback system that will be offered by any customers who gives a call. This feedback system would be added in a document that would have a different section per employee. By doing this, Yachted Ltd. Will be able to see who are the employees that put more effort into the company and at the same time see the ones that aren’t doing so well. But the feedback system is something that should not be applied only to the customers. Employees should get surveys at least once every three months. When employees feel their opinion matter they will be more than happy to work for the company.

They will be able to express any concerns or problems they are having in the company. Even though it didn’t work to raise the salary and give a profit-sharing plan they should still stick to it, but the ones that end up in the top three of the system each month would receive a big bonus. By doing this you will be able to make employees to compete and making a better performance. If you give the same prizes and same salary to all the employees, it will lack of a competitive environment making the customer service worst and make the productivity per employee lower.

To keep up with this productivity, employees should take a training every four months to be able to overcome their challenges within the company. This will allow employees to be able to perform quickly, learn new skills and at the same time maintain them. At the moment all these issued are addressed, employees will start having a different perspective of the job. By having happy employees we will be able to fix the problem of having low employee referrals.

Developing an EFE Matrix for Walt Disney Company

Purpose

This exercise will give you practice developing an EFE matrix . An EFE matrix summarizes the result of an external audit . This is an important tool widely used by strategists .

Instructions

Step 1

Join with other two students in class , and jointly prepare an EFE Matrix for . Refer back to the cohesion case and to Experiential Exercise 1A . If necessary , to identify external opportunities and threats .

Step 2

All three-person team participating in this exercise should record their EFE total weighted scores on the board . Put your initials after your score to identify it as your team’s

Step 3

Compare the total weighted scores. Which team’s score came closest to the instructor’s answer discuss reasons for variation in the scores reported on the board. More colleges and universities are embarking upon the strategic-management process . Institutions are consciously and systematically identifying and evaluating external opportunities and threats facing higher education in your state , the nation , and the world .

Instructions

Step 1

Join with two other individuals in class and jointly prepare an EFE Matrix for your institution.

Step 2

Go to the board and record your total weighted score in a column that includes the scores of all three person-teams participating . Put your initials after your score to identify it as your team’s.

Step 3

Which team viewed your college’s strategies most positively ? Which team viewed your college’s most negatively ? Discuss the nature of the differences .

Opportunities

• Move into different segments
• Proper inventory management
• Market development in untapped countries.
• Reduction in operating costs.
• Disney music channel     Benchmarking to improve management practices.
• Disney school of management and training
• Online Websites
• Develop more attractions for theme park.

Threats

• Security Threats due to terrorism
• Employee retention
• High competition in Media Industry.
• Facing fierce competition from Paramount Parks, Universal Studios and Six Flags Theme Parks.
• Social and ethnic groups.
• Government policies
• High demanding market in terms of innovation.
• Increasing salaries and labor cost.
• Maintain product differentiation.
• Tight competition in national and international markets.
• Searching, paying and retaining innovative people.
• Piracy Recent changes in U. S. , global, or regional economic conditions could have a continuing adverse effect on the profitability of some or all of our businesses. Changes in public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment and consumer products could reduce demand for our entertainment offerings and products and adversely affect the profitability of any of our businesses.

Changes in technology and in consumer consumption patterns may affect demand for our entertainment products or the cost of producing or distributing products. The success of our businesses is highly dependent on the existence and maintenance of intellectual property rights in the entertainment products and services we create. A variety of uncontrollable events may reduce demand for our products and services, impair our ability to provide our products and services or increase the cost of providing our products and services.

Increased competitive pressures may reduce our revenues or increase our costs. Sustained increases in costs of pension and postretirement medical and other employee health and welfare benefits may reduce our profitability. Our results may be adversely affected if long-term programming or carriage contracts are not renewed on sufficiently favorable terms. Changes in regulations applicable to our businesses may impair the profitability of our businesses. Labor disputes may disrupt our operations and adversely affect the profitability of any of our businesses.

Provisions in our corporate documents and Delaware state law could delay or prevent a change of control, even if that change would be beneficial to shareholders. The seasonality of certain of our businesses could exacerbate negative impacts on our operations. The Company’s acquisition of Marvel is expected to cause short term dilution in earnings per share and there can be no assurance that anticipated improvements in earnings per share will be realized.

The chapter “Needs Analysis” discusses the needs analysis of a company in terms of the training or nontraining needs of the company, and the phase that completes the process of achieving this said analysis. This process starts from understanding the Actual Organizational Performance and the Expected Organizational Performance and its possible discrepancies which determines the need of training or a nontraining within the organization. The following are answers to the question in the chapter’s case study.

Do you agree with Fred’s choice? Why?

I do not agree with Fred’s choice for three reasons. First, the package that was chosen by Fred does not satisfy the training needs of the company. Since the company is in great need for alterations to its services, catering to specialized items and personalized services, it is suggested by the manager to train non-management employees in good customer relations skills. However, there are discrepancies to the package chosen by Fred as it does not satisfy the training needs. The package that was chosen caters customer satisfaction training for the sales clerks and not the exact training.

Second, the price of the package is not as reasonable as the second package. The alternative package clearly caters to the exact request of the manager which is customer service skills training as compared to the lack thereof of Fred’s chosen package. It can be further reviewed that the second package pledges that it is the best in the country; therefore there should be clear indications that the Expected Organizational Performance can be achieved by undergoing this training. The significance, moreover, is that the price of the packages is much lesser than that of Fred’s chosen package.

Third, the duration of the package is not as advantageous compared to the second one. There is no assurance that the three-day training is indeed more accommodating than a one-day training. In addition, a much longer training does not help the company since labor from employees is suspended to accommodate the training.  Therefore, I do not agree with Fred’s choice because there is an absence of a thorough analysis on which training is more gainful and beneficial.

What else might Fred do before choosing a training package? Describe your approach in some detail.

It is advisable that Fred study the organizational performance gap of the company before actually choosing the training package. Since it is a new vision that the managers are trying to employ within the company, there should be a study made analyzing the training needs of the employees. This should be done by taking into consideration the objectives of the company outlined by the new company strategy, the expected customer relations skills which bring about profit to the company, and the actual performance of the employees at the current time. This study would provide specific needs of the company from their employees that could be developed by the training.

After analyzing all these, Fred could come up with a framework that will give a clear objective outline that is expected from the training of the employees. Also, with this analysis, Fred would easily identify which training package is more beneficial to both the employees and the company.

If training went ahead as indicated, how successful do you think it would be? Explain your answer using concepts from this chapter.

With the concept of proactive training needs analysis, it should be clear that the managers made a right decision on training the employees to adjust the current practices to the new strategy of the company. However, if the success of the training is to be rated, I would personally give it a failing mark since Fred failed to do an organizational analysis, an operational analysis, and a person analysis.

The organizational analysis further studies the organization’s objectives in its new strategy. Since there are no highlighted objectives, the training can be considered to be lacking of specific vision. Also, the absence of an operational analysis brings about an unproductive training since there is no expected performance cited by the management as to how customer relation skills should be in the company. Lastly, without Fred’s person analysis, one that studies the actual performance of the employees on customer relation skills, the training could not possibly cover all the needed trainings as current issues are not addressed. Moreover, there could be possible overlapping in the training as some acquired employee knowledge may repeatedly be imparted through the training modules. This, thus, brings about waste of time and money in the organization’s part.

References

1. Blanchard, N. & Thacker, J. (2006). Effective training: systems, strategies and practices. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

What problems are facing Erik Peterson? 1. Unclear reporting structure 2. Inventory control 3. Personnel issues: a. Chief Engineer b. Subcontractor c. Employee salary issues d. Conflicts / poor relationships between various positions 4. Lack of clear direction / consistent decisions / communication from corporate 5. Lower level of actual experience from those in higher management 6. Zoning issues 7. Lack of support from corporate regarding local relationships 8. Lack of training for many key positions GMT had originally been targeted to begin service to subscribers on February

Y l, but it was now a month behind target because of several major problems. (Page 1) Instead of reporting to Jenkins, like originally assumed, he was assigned to Jeff Hardy, Cellulose’s director of budgets and plans. Hardy had never had any system operating experience, so was unable to offer him any initial advice or guidance that was specific or helpful. Their relationship was somewhat awkward in the beginning because Peterson has never been formally told by either Jenkins or Hardy of the reporting relations hip; it just seemed to have occurred. (Page 3 and 4)

The initial construction of cellular towers, performed by a subcontractor, was already several weeks behind schedule and that would never meet the turn-on target. Efforts to get the subcontractor to improve his construction rate failed, and GMT was race vying an increasing number of complaints from local citizens about the way the sub annotator was cutting through privately owned trees and property. (Page 4) CLC Peterson had difficulties with getting his chief engineer, Curt Andrews, to do t he planning and organizing necessary to ensure that equipment and supplies arrived whew n they were needed.

Page 4) Peterson discussed this problem with Hardy several times a ND raised it again in Los Angels, button no avail. Curt Andrews had worked his way up an d he had gained a reputation within Cellulose for being technically frustrate. After thro e Of four months in Hanover, Peterson came to realize that Curt did not have either the administrative ability or the prior knowledge needed to start up a brand new operation. (Page e 5) Peterson raised the possibility that Curt be reassigned and replaced by a person who h ad more operating and startup experience; the people he talked with in Los Angel s insisted that

Curt had the potential to handle a startup; all he needed was more coaching and help from Peterson. Furthermore, Cellulose had just relocated Curt and his family fro m Tampa to Hanover and Peterson suspected that the company did not wish to put him the rough another move. (Page 5) Peterson took steps to help Curt improve the planning and coordination. One step he took was to have Curt call weekly construction meetings to which everyone in the o organization was invited. However, Peterson felt that Curt did not become involved enough in t hem; he found himself getting most Of his reposts directly from Curt’s two subordinates Todd

Jones, supervisor of the radio engineering department, and Mike Delano, supervisor of SMUT’S construction department despite his attempts to get Curt more actively involve deed. (Page 6) Another step was establishing an inventory control reporting system; but gaga n Peterson found that Curt resisted the effort. Peterson continued to have difficulty getting Eng these reports from Curt completed on time. Peterson suspected that Curt was somehow re sinful that Peterson did not trust him implicitly.

The inventory control problem became s o great that on two occasions GMT ran short of the radios that were required to equip cell is e; if the radio installation team ran out of radios during the installation process the entire p recess had to be set up all over again, wasting valuable time and money. One these two cocoas ions when Curt did not plan for the radio shipment correctly, Peterson was lucky enough to g et overnight shipping. (Page 6) During this period, Peterson again discussed the problems with Curt asking to have him transferred but Hardy was again reluctant to take any cacti on. Page 7) Curt had problems working with Todd Jones. Many of their conflicts were over the selection and specification of antenna equipment. Over time these issues had come so frequent that Todd told Peterson on several occasions that he felt he was beet ere qualified than Curt and that he wanted Curt’s job. (Page 7) Curt also had several problems w irking with Melissa Mizzen, Peterson secretary. Most of the arguments between Curt an d Melissa were over errors in applications prepared by Curt, but typed by Melissa. Peterson s suspected that Curt resented having his errors pointed out by a woman. Page 7) 0 Jim Weston, a earldom college graduate, who was brought in as director of marketing was an aggressive and ambitious man who Often rubbed people the wrong ay in his hurry to et things done. Jims market plans were not detailed enough and they require deed careful review. (Page 7) Tremor Burns, a roadside college graduate was hired to run the customer seer vice department. Tremor had many ideas, some of which were impractical and his constant flow of new ideas eventually became a problem for everyone, including Todd Jones a ND even Peterson himself; Peterson had to talk to Tremor about it.

Tremor and Curt so n developed problems working with one another; Peterson believed that some of these did faculties occurred because of the many suggestions Tremor made about equipment selection an d procedures. The relationship between Tremor and Curt had become quite strained, Peters on suspected that some of these difficulties may have been caused by Curt’s defensiveness over not having a college degree, and his resulting annoyance at Tremor’s constant flow of critic schisms and suggestions. (Page 7) Peterson promoted his secretary, Melissa, to manager of Accounting and Cacti ovations In February with a raise in her salary.

Cellulose headquarters thought that the resulting increase over her previous salary was excessive and Los Angels only approve d an increase that was 20% less than what Peterson had originally offered to her. Peterson f let that Melissa and he knew the quality of her work had suffered as a result. (Page 8) D Peterson had offered Tremor the job at a competitive salary that Tremor had AC accepted. Todd Jones, who was making 25% less, learned about the amount of Tremor’s salary and complained at the difference. Peterson had to discuss the problem with Trove r to let him know that his salary had become known within the company.

Tremor voluntarily Off red to accept a salary cut of 20%, knowing that he had to learn some of the technical aspects of the cellular industry from Todd and Curt. (Page 8) Cellulose headquarters had delayed in making several key decisions and ha d several changes in equipment originally specified. As a result of these delays, Cellulose m’s prime supplier of radios could not deliver on time, and Cellulose had to go to an a Iterate source whose equipment was later found to be defective, thereby requiring renegotiate action with the first supplier.

Headquarters had made a change in the power supply ratings in Deck ember which Hardy did not inform Peterson of until January. Thus the equipment that GUM T had in inventory could not be used and additional design changes had to be made. T 0 further implicate the situation, headquarters made a subsequent decision in January y to have all power supplies include backup batteries, rather than the generator system the at had originally been specified; the new power supplies did not arrive until the end of February y, (Page 8 and 9) Peterson constantly has a problem with his inability to get either support or CLC ear direction from Hardy.

The one suggestion Hardy made, involved marketing to as many customers on the system as possible, but he did not have a set plan or action to do so. (Page Hardy’s four visits to Hanover had been characterized as “nitpicking’ without r solution of any of the major problems that Peterson felt he had to deal with. (Page 9) Pet errors suspected that some of Hardy’s indecisiveness was caused by Hardy’s uncertain relation ship with his own boss, Rice Jenkins, and his little operating experience in cellular. Page 9) CLC Hardy and Peterson did not agree on how to handle the local governments, el adding Peterson to renegotiate with the local fire department after he solidified the p Ian to use the fire department’s communication tower as a GMT cell site in a neighboring town . Hardy was too concerned with the budget and ROI, and not with the benefits that Cellulose and the public would get from this deal. (Page 12) Peterson felt somewhat uncomfortable in his relationships with both Cantor a ND Green because of an encounter he had had with them during his orientation period.

Peterson did not care for Green’s imperious and egotistical manner and feels a distinct dislike f or him. When Peterson challenges Cantor’s statements, he finds she becomes agitated and visibly upset. (Page 12 and 13) One of the issues Cellulose had was the difficulty GMT was having with the e local utility in getting it to “make ready” its telephone lines according to the promised such duel. Although the meeting with the local general manager had gone well and he had promise deed better service, the utility continued to fall behind its makers schedule. Page 13) Peterson has a poor supervisor who’s unsure of his skills and ability to lead their relationship was “ambiguous and awkward in the beginning” because Peters on was never informed about the reporting relationship, Hardy failed in giving clear direction n or support to Peterson. Decision making authority and power Peterson is given the responsibility of getting this initiative running, but he does not seem to have the decision making authority to make things happen quickly and efficiently. For example, he needs to get permission to chi angel subcontractors and replace an engineer.

No practical experience in industry Peterson cannot successfully lead without proper insight into the industry important positions to get the project off the ground are not able to handle the Eire roles (Curt) Relations to class concepts: 2. What are the underlying causes of these problems? The underlying causes of these problems are there is no communication ammo angst the company and its employees. Many of the employees do not have the proper training and knowledge for the positions they are in and do not put in enough effort, or they believe they are over quail fled than others.

L] No one knows who directly to report back to, creating awkward relationships and a bad path of communication. Due to his inexperience (and possible youth) Peterson lacks respect from thou SE he manages. The overall inconsistency, especially in regard to decisions made by upper m management, has led to confusion. In regard to the upper management’s view of Curt, they believed that he coo old handle the job based on past performance in different areas (halo effect). Page 5) They also were influenced by the same bias in regard to resisting terminating the contract wit h the subcontractor. The majority of the team, but especially Curt, seems to suffer from excessive individualism. While Peterson did try to increase supervision of Curt and implement regular meetings, this plan may have backfired. It appears to have evoked negative feelings from C rut which have continued to affect his job performance. Perhaps offering him incentives for meeting certain expectations would have been more helpful.

No leadership skills with Hardy or Peterson, neither have much experience in area, which leads to lack of confidence because of lack of expertise Lack of communication/direction/ authority between the staff and the WHQL (Peterson cannot handle all hires/ fires/wages on his own without authorization, but is supposed to be the manager) Decision making is not in place for the schedule and needs of the project (Deck Sino making tree or other method of planning not in place radios and power supplies short takes or not ordered in time for different steps of the process to take place) Lack of structure and skill sets in roles (Stevens moved from customer service over to do construction coordination, has a degree in social work) Confidential info was disclosed (salary info) so morale and relationships are n to as they should be in an office environment How effective has Peterson been in taking charge of the Hanover Startup, in t arms of managing the new operation and of providing leadership? Peterson has been effective in taking charge and turning around Hanover star tap so it will be ready in time for turn-on date.

To: Prof. Chalmers From: Travis Ramme and Meghan Smith Date: April 26th, 2007 Re: Ms. Chalmers’ Compensation Choices 1. Ignoring taxation and other constraints, Ms. Jameson is better off taking the options. The stock currently trading at $18. 75 and the exercise price is $35. This may seem drastically far away. However, 5 year T-Bill rates are currently at 6. 02%. Combined with a current stock volatility of approximately 42%, this allows each option to be valued at approximately $4. 93. At this amount, Ms. Jameson’s options would be presently worth $14,790 were she to sell them.

Where she to hold them instead, Ms. Jameson’s potential upside is limitless. Her possible gains would be equal to her number of options multiplied by the difference between the stock price and her exercise price of $35, assuming that the stock price is higher than $35. There is risk involved, however. If Ms. Jameson decides to hold onto the options and not sell them, it would be possible for her to earn nothing. If the stocks price where to stay below $35 dollars, Ms. Jameson’s options would be worth nothing.

Comparatively, the $5000 cash bonus, where it to be invested over the 5 years at the risk free rate of 6. 02%, would yield only $6697. 44. 2. If Ms. Jameson was not allowed to sell her options before the allotted 5 years, the choice to take the options would have much more inherent risk. The current value of the options is derived from their market value. This market value means nothing if Ms. Jameson cannot sell the options. If this where the case, Ms. Jameson’s potential profits would be created solely by the Telstar stock rising to a price that was greater than $35 by the end of 5 years.

In fact, to equal the $6697. 44 value of the bonus she could have chosen instead, the stock would have to reach a price of at least $37. 23. This value would allow the 3000 options to be exercised for a profit of $6697. 44. This, however, is ignoring the fact that Ms. Jameson would have to pay taxes and transaction fees. If Ms. Jameson was not allowed to sell her options, she should choose the $5000 up front bonus. It represents a less risky asset. 3. Companies are often inclined to use stock options to compensate employees rather than exhausting cash flow.

It does not directly cost a company anything in terms of “accounting costs. ” There is, however, an implied economic cost equal to that of outside investors’ costs. The cost of a stock option is more or less a perceived cost, as the true value is not concrete and is virtually unknown at the time of issuance. This is due to the length of the option and specified strike price being of possible value at expiration date. The current value of an option is dependent on the performance of the company and its stock price, that is, in the future.

Executive stock options help align an executive employee’s monetary compensation with both individual performance and the overall performance of the firm. In this sense, an executive is encouraged to act in the best interests of the firm and to also to take some risks to grow the company in which they work for and thus, increase the company’s stock prices. Stock options are an effective way to correlate performance and compensation, but mainly only for employees that are in positions that can have an affect on the company’s performance.

Employees in executive, decision-making positions have the ability to impact the profitability and growth of the organization, whereas administrative assistant positions would not be as likely to improve performance due to being compensated with stock options. Companies could better individualize compensation packages for different positions. Executive positions fit the stock options benefit plan while administrative assistants may prefer stock purchasing rights rather than options.

Other employees that fall somewhere in the middle would be better suited for a combination of monetary compensation, stock options and stock in the firm. In addition, stock options with a lessened length of time to the expiration date may prove to drive option-holding employees to set short-term, achievable goals. Employees would be given successive stock options to promote their care for the company without feeling as though they are being forced to stay with the organization. This set up of granting stock options would also help to encourage performance of employees to lead to both the short and long term success of the firm. . If Ms. Jameson decided that the option was a better deal, but was concerned with being too committed and reliant on the fortunes of Telstar, she could modify her compensation package to better suit her individual needs. Ms. Jameson would be taking considerable risk by keeping all of her bonus in Telstar for stock options with such a lengthy expiration date and also due to the historical data of Telstar showing that only stock prices reached $35 (the exercise price) only once.

Instead of holding on to all 3,000 issued stock options, Ms. Jameson could keep a portion of the stock options and trade some in the market. Keeping some Telstar stock options would help keep her tied to the company without making her feel that she is bound to the company for the next five years or that she is facing enormous risk of losing her bonus altogether. By doing this, Ms. Jameson would provide herself with the opportunity to make investments outside of Telstar, and thus, better diversify her investments.