Business Finance Homework Help

Answer the 3 questions

Question 1 and 2 have Student Replies please reply with Hello (Student Name),

Each question must use APA format and use a scholarly source. For Question 3 I have attached the Grading Rubric to follow.

Please upload each question in different word documents.

Question 1

As this week’s material points out, we are living in times of immense change. One of the essential tasks of an organization’s leadership is to lead organizations in a way that ensures that the entire organization is committed to the change and that support mechanisms are in place to sustain change. Research several online industries that are currently stressed by changing marketplaces and demographics: the newspaper and publishing Industries, entertainment media outlets, brick and mortar retail, and even campus bookstores.

Choose an organization within one of the industries listed above, or one of your own choosing that is currently impacted by a changing marketplace.

How would you apply Kotter’s eights steps toward leading change within that organization?

Provide examples of the desired outcomes and support mechanisms you would utilize.

Cite your sources appropriately to include the recommended readings and the textbook.

Guided Response: Analyze several of your peers’ posts.  Let at least two of your peers know how their chosen approach would be useful in your scenario as well.  Suggest any approaches you have found that may be helpful in their environment.

Student Reply 1 Katie 

Choose an organization within one of the industries listed above or one of your choosing that is currently impacted by a changing marketplace.

• A changing marketplace currently impacts an organization within one of the industries listed above that is Disney. To further accelerate their direct-to-consumer strategy, Whitten (2020) explains, “Disney is restructuring its media and entertainment divisions, as streaming becomes the most important facet of the company’s media business” (para. 1). A major contributing factor for this restructuring is the recent global pandemic, which has forced customers to stream their entertainment within the comfort zones of their homes versus going to theaters and plays. 
• How would you apply Kotter’s eight steps toward leading change within that organization?
• The first step is to create a sense of urgency. As noted above, the pandemic had a helping hand in the urgency of reorganizing Disney’s media business.

According to London & Mone (2016), “out of the sense of urgency, leaders need to create respected and credible teams to guide the change initiative” (Chapter 5.4, para. 5). Step two in Kotter’s process is to build a guiding team. I would create a team that was committed and focused on driving said change across the company. Additionally, a positive group will limit risks and makes continuous improvement a priority.

The third step is to build a vision and strategy. Creating a vision and strategy can be challenging; therefore, I would keep it simple, focusing on a vision that can be tied to the strategic and emotional benefits of the company. Understanding the culture and what you are working towards will help build this strategy and vision.

Communicating the vision is step four.  Continuous communication is essential in times of change. Keeping the vision in the forefront will help foster the change and creates a shared logic of the desired future. Further, address all concerns that arise and lead by example with a positive boldness.

To comply with the next step, empower broad-based actions, I would make sure I was eliminating any concerns or obstacles that do not support the change vision. This is important for the success of the implementation of the change. When there are obstacles or barriers upfront, you are risking delaying the change before it even begins. I would empower these actions by reviewing and updating processes and procedures to align with the change vision.

Creating short-term wins is step six, which includes additional communication to promote small victories in the change process. Providing positive feedback to our audience will add power and lessen resistance to the change.

The next step in Kotter’s process is not to let up. Reviewing and continuous improvement is essential during this step. The start of any change is the start. One needs to continue to review and analyze it to ensure we are maintaining and improving where necessary. 

Finally, make the change stick is the eighth and final step in Kotter’s process. Recognizing those who positively promote the change and adapting to the new normal will help with continuous efforts to ensure that the change is being seen in the organization. Leaders should also be charged with fostering the change by discussing wins that occurred based on the change.

Provide examples of the desired outcomes and support mechanisms you would utilize.

The desired outcome for Disney would be to implement a successful streaming business to ensure increased revenue in the entertainment industry. I would collaborate with team members and business leaders and listen to any concerns, address them immediately. London & Mone (2016) indicated, “Honor the past. Don’t be too critical of how things were; focus more on the more appropriate vision for the future” (Chapter 5.4, para. 6).

References:

London, M., & Mone, E. (2016, December). Leadership for today and the future (2nd ed.). https://content.uagc.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

Whitten, S. (2020). Disney says its ‘primary focus’ for entertainment is streaming-announces a major reorg. CNBC. Disney reorganizes to focus on streaming, direct to consumer (cnbc.com)

Student Reply 2 Dean 

Team,

    There is no shortage of industries that are currently stressed by changing marketplaces. The world has changed as we know it over the past 2 years for many reasons, but arguably the most significant reason has been the COVID pandemic. This has effected EVERYBODY in some way. The industry that I chose to focus on is travel, which was devastated with the onset of COVID. The pandemic provided Kotter’s first step of leading change, which was “Create a sense of urgency. Leaders need to be sure that as many people as possible within the organization recognize the need for the change” (London et al, 2012, Section 5.4). The industry had to take this urgency and empower leaders to build a contingency plan, then create the vision and strategy for the company to follow.

    How I would have applied Kotter’s eight steps is as follows (See pg. 281 of our textbook to follow):

Create a sense of urgency: As stated, the pandemic created this sense of urgency for us. I would hammer home that we are in a change or die type situation to show my team how dire this is.

Build a guiding team: This team would have to be created from members within the organization as well as some medical experts to be able to make safe decisions for our travelers. These experts are the support mechanism to show customers that we have their health at the forethought of our motives.

Develop a vision and strategy: The vision is to provide safe, reliable travel options in a pandemic stricken world. The support mechanism here is to remind people that now, more than ever…they need to be able to relax and unwind from the stressors of life.

Communicate the change: Once the guiding team has created a plan to enforce the vision, we need ALL employees to understand the reasoning and processes. This is to support the change in the field.

Empower broad-based decisions: With the medical and business plan combined, we would need to remove barriers. The biggest focus within this step is to train our travel staff how to combat points of infection and give them the tools needed to safely maintain the environment for both themselves and the travelers.

Create short-term wins: These wins would be measured through prevention based training modules to show them how to disinfect the environment while not taking away from the travel experience. This will be done through positive reinforcement and training certificates to show their growth. The support mechanism here is to reward the employees for taking active steps in this shift.

Don’t let up: We have to be all-in on this endeavor to stay in business. While we will be providing positive reinforcement for employees changing with us, we must also remove employees that refuse to change. They can become a detriment to maintaining the industry during this trying time.

Make the change stick: Once the pandemic educated cadre are trained, empowered, and ready to enforce the new vision…they will be offered opportunities for growth and promotion. We need their new skillset and positive attitude in order to maintain our ability to make customers want to travel.

    By building a team of professionals that are trained to counteract the dangers of the pandemic, we can then advertise that to the population. Once people see the professional enthusiasm and safety protocols that are in-place, word of mouth will lessen the advertisement costs. This will allow us to recoup the investment that was put in to this industrial shift that was required to keep the business afloat.

Dean    

References:

London, M., & Mone, E. (2012). Leadership for today and the future. (2nd. ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Question 2 Adaptive work is accomplished by finding a solution to seemingly intractable problems facing leaders; the solution is neither technical, nor obvious. As the material illustrates, leaders must motivate organization members to face demanding situations that arise from the organization’s own culture and values. Using the organization you chose within this week’s first discussion, analyze an adaptive challenge facing this organization.

Describe the adaptive work that needs to be accomplished.

Analyze your approach to resolving the problem. Be certain to include questions that would arise, and what trade-offs may be required in your analysis.

Describe the desired outcome.

Cite your sources appropriately to include the recommended readings and the textbook.

Guided Response: Analyze several of your peers’ posts.  Give advice to at least two of your peers suggesting any approaches you have found that may prove to be helpful in conducting their adaptive work.

Student Reply 3Deryk

Describe the adaptive work that needs to be accomplished.

For this week’s first discussion, I chose to highlight Cheesecake Factory and how they were able to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions and operated as a “ghost kitchen” which only opened for delivery and does not require a host, waiter/waitress, parking space, and dinning room. An adaptive challenge for Cheesecake Factory is their returning employees who have not been exposed to the new type of restaurant service due to high demands for delivery service apps. Many waiters/waitresses anticipate for the same number of customers and tips during pre-covid times and others understand that by continue to focus on delivery services, it would eliminate extra work with lower tips but are happy with the workload.

Analyze your approach to resolving the problem. Be certain to include questions that would arise and what trade-offs may be required in your analysis.

As a leader, I would support the ways my associates learn especially for the large number or returning employees. According to London & Mone (2016) “This means recognizing that people learn by making small changes in the way they behave ad work with others (adaptive learning). This means that as a leader, understanding how people learn and helping them embrace change little by little can help to create the necessary behaviors leading up the those changes like making less tips, staying safe from COVID-19, and have a steady income. Questions that may arise such as consistent pay, employee retention, and health benefits can still be a problem due to the on-going issue of COVID-19 but as a leader, accepting those change and leading as an example will help their associates to understand that change is constant.

Describe the desired outcome.

The desired outcome for Cheesecake Factory will help leaders to empower their associates by embracing change under the harsh conditions and restrictions of COVID-19.

Reference

London, M., & Mone, E. (2016, December). Leadership for today and the future (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.uagc.edu/

Student Reply 4 Susanna 

According to our text, “Adaptive leadership is an approach that engages and empowers followers to own and solve problems collectively, as a community, and to tackle problems that are hard to define and have no clear, available solutions. …having all parties involved and engaged in the solution is essential to finding resolution” (London et al, 2012, Section 5.2).

In the first discussion post, I chose Amazing Books and Records in Pittsburgh, PA, a retail brick and mortar bookstore. One way they can reach more potential customers is through a presence in social media.  Some companies hire entire marketing departments devoted to social media, while some companies avoid social media due to potential controversial incidents.  So, Amazing Books and Records needs to establish a social media presence to reach a younger customer base that is heavily involved in technology, while keeping their posts and the posts from their employees ethical, non-controversial, and non-discriminatory or non-offensive.   

First, I would suggest that not all associates have access to posting on behalf of the company. However, employees should be encouraged to “follow” their company on social media, as well as “share” the company’s posts on their pages. Adrian Dayton suggests in a Forbes article (2021), that having employees share content makes the company more approachable and establishes connections with customers and potential employees through their own staff.  Those posting on the company’s social media pages or outlets would need to undergo training.  This training could be created by Amazing Books and Records’ leadership, or they could hire a third-party to conduct the training.  Training should include how to post effectively, what products and services to promote, how to take good photos for social media posts, as well as what not to post and which topics to stay away from. Company policies and procedures would need to be created relating to posting on social media for the company.

The desired outcome would be for an increased social media presence that attracts potential customers, engages with the public, and advertises new products and services.  These pages should direct people to the website or store for purchasing.

References:

Dayton, A. (2021, October 13). 4 ways to improve your company’s social media presence. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adriandayton/2021/10/…

London, M., & Mone, E. (2012). Leadership for today and the future. (2nd. ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Question 3 

Final Paper

This paper will be an application of the leadership practice concepts learned throughout your degree program to a real-world situation. In an eight- to ten-page paper, discuss one significant organizational challenge within your organization or an organization you have researched. How did the leadership of the organization address the challenge? Could it have been done more effectively? How would you recommend future leaders strategically plan to avoid encountering a similar challenge within their own organizations? Provide suggestions for overcoming the challenge based on your own research and concepts presented in your degree program and grounded in leadership theory. Some challenges to consider would be (but are not limited to): an ethical challenge, a challenge occurring because of changes in the economy, a globalization challenge, or a challenge of organizational culture.