Compare and contrast four strategies for merging organizational cultures.

What do studies of different cultures and conflicts reveal?

Green Vehicle Inc. manufactures electric cars and small delivery trucks. It has just opened a new factory where the $\mathrm{Cl}$ car and the $\mathrm{Tl}$ truck can both be manufactured. To make either vehicle, processing in the assembly shop and in the paint shop are required. It takes $1 / 40$ of a day and $1 / 60$ of a day to paint a truck of type $\mathrm{T} 1$ and a car of type $\mathrm{Cl}$ in the paint shop, respectively. It takes $1 / 50$ of a day to assemble either type of vehicle in the assembly shop.

A T1 truck and a Cl car yield profits of $\$ 300$ and $\$ 220$, respectively, per vehicle sold.

Graph the feasible region.

Dr. Lillian Fok, a New Orleans psychologist, specializes in treating patients who are agoraphobic (i.e., afraid to leave their homes). The following table indicates how many patients Dr. Fok has seen each year for the past 10 years. It also indicates what the robbery rate was in New Orleans during the same year:

Using trend (linear regression) analysis, predict the number of patients Dr. Fok will see in years 11 and 12 as a function of time. How well does the model fit the data?

What is a simplified description which is unfairly applied to every person in the same category?

What can a manager do to discourage social loafing in a group?

Many product reviews are available on the Internet. Two examples are reviews on electronics products such as DVD players and high-definition televisions. There are often both positive and negative reviews. a. Do such reviews (positive and negative) influence your purchasing decisions? Why or why not?
b. Why do you suppose consumers take the time and effort to write such reviews?
c. There is often a feedback button asking if you found the review helpful. Do you usually respond? Why or why not?

This chapter discussed the role of values and beliefs in forming an organization’s culture. The topic of organizational culture is big business on the Internet. Many companies use their Web pages to describe their mission, vision, and corporate values and beliefs. There also are many consulting firms that advertise how they help organizations to change their culture. The purpose of this exercise is for you to obtain information pertaining to the organizational culture for two different companies. You can go about this task by very simply searching on the key words “organizational culture” or “corporate vision and values.” This search will identify numerous companies for you to use to answer the following questions. You may want to select companies that you would like to work for in the future.

a. What are the espoused values and beliefs of the companies?

b. Use the worksheet in Figure 3.6 to assess the Web page. What does the Web page reveal about the culture of this organization? Would this culture be conducive to effective project management?

A manager must determine requirements for waiting space for customers. A priority system is used to process customers, who are assigned to one of two classes when they enter the processing center. The highest-priority class has an arrival rate of four per hour; the other class has an arrival rate of two per hour. Both can be described as Poisson-distributed. There are two servers, and each can process customers in an average of 15 minutes. a. What is the system utilization? b. Determine the number of customers of each class that are waiting for service. c. Determine the average waiting time for each class. d. If the manager could alter the assignment rules so that arrival rates of the two classes were both 3/hour, what would be the revised average waiting time for each priority class?

The Custom Bike Company has set up a weighted scoring matrix for evaluation of potential projects. Below are five projects under consideration.

a. Using the scoring matrix in the following chart, which project would you rate highest? Lowest?

b. If the weight for “Strong Sponsor” is changed from 2.0 to 5.0, will the project selection change? What are the three highest weighted project scores with this new weight?

c. Why is it important that the weights mirror critical strategic factors?

Go to www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat.html, Big Dog’s Instructional System Design (ISD) page. This website is an excellent resource that describes all aspects of the ISD model. Click on “Learning” and scroll to the concept map or list of terms under the map. Click on “Learning Styles” and take the Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic (VAK survey. What are the implications of your learning style for how you learn best? What type of learning environment is best suited for your style? Be as specific as possible.

Why do workers sometimes resent time studies?

Describe the dependence model of power and describe the five sources of power in organizations.

Discuss the dynamics of emotional labor and the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace.