What is corporate-level strategy and why is it important/

Summarize effective communication strategies in organizational hierarchies, and review the role and relevance of the organizational grapevine.

Suppose you are going to have a prescription filled at a local pharmacy. Referring to the dimen- sions of service quality for each dimension, give an example of how you would judge the quality of the service.

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.

Trucks arrive at the loading dock of a wholesale grocer at the rate of 1.2 per hour. A single crew consisting of two workers can load a truck in about 30 minutes. Crew members receive $10 per hour in wages and fringe benefits, and trucks and drivers reflect an hourly cost of$60. The manager is thinking of adding another member to the crew. The service rate would then be 2.4 trucks per hour. Assume rates are Poisson. a. Would the third crew member be economical? b. Would a fourth member be justifiable if the resulting service capacity were 2.6 trucks per hour?

Prepare a flowchart that describes going to the library to study for an exam. Your flowchart should include these items: finding a place at the library to study; checking to see if you have your book, paper, highlighter, and so forth; traveling to the library; and the possibility of moving to another location if the place you chose to study starts to get crowded.

A worker-machine operation was found to involve 3.3 minutes of machine time per cycle in the course of 40 cycles of stopwatch study. The worker’s time averaged 1.9 minutes per cycle, and the worker was given a rating of 120 percent (machine rating is 100 percent). Midway through the study, the worker took a 10-minute rest break. Assuming an allowance factor of 12 percent of work time, determine the standard time for this job.

Many of a bank’s customers use its automatic teller machine to transact business after normal banking hours. During the early evening hours in the summer months, customers arrive at a certain location at the rate of one every other minute. This can be modeled using a Poisson distribution. Each customer spends an average of 90 seconds completing his or her transactions. Transaction time is exponentially distributed. Determine: a. The average time customers spend at the machine, including waiting in line and completing transactions. b. The probability that a customer will not have to wait upon arriving at the automatic teller machine. c. The average number waiting to use the machine.

Outline the team effectiveness model and discuss how task characteristics, team size, and team composition influence team effectiveness.

a. $\lambda$ = 3 customers/hour $\mu$ = 5 customers/hour M = 1

1. What is the system utilization?
2. What is the average number of customers waiting for service?
3. What is the average time customers wait in line for service? b. Repair calls are handled by one repairman at a photocopy shop. Repair time, including travel time, is exponentially distributed, with a mean of two hours per call. Requests for copier repairs come in at a mean rate of three per eight-hour day (assume Poisson). Determine:
4. The average number of customers awaiting repairs.
5. System utilization.
6. The amount of time during an eight-hour day that the repairman is not out on a call.
7. The probability of two or more customers in the system. c. An average of 18 customers arrive at a service center each hour. There are two servers on duty, and each server can process 12 customers per hour.
8. What is the system utilization?
9. What is the average number of customers in the system (waiting plus being served)?
10. What is the average time customers wait in line for service?
11. What is the average waiting time for customers who actually have to wait?

Businesses sometimes acquire widely dispersed processing facilities through a number of mergers or acquisitions. What trade-offs might they face in considering consolidation?

What is meant by the term safety time?

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?

Given these observed times (in minutes) for five elements of a job, determine the observed time (OT) for each element. Note: Some of the elements occur only periodically.