Whole Foods Case Study

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Review the Whole Foods Case Study (pp. 1-6) and answer the questions connected to Chapters 1, 2, and 3 as listed below.  Responses to each question should range from 100-200 words. Your paper should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards (12 point Times New Roman font, double-spacing, 1″ margins, title and reference pages).  Be sure to use the text and/or other sources to support your responses and properly cite the use of such.

  1. Describe how Whole Foods uses human capital as a course of competitive advantage. (Ch 1)
  2. Identify the aspects of high-involvement management contained in Whole Foods’ approach to managing its associates. (Ch 1)
  3. How could Whole Foods’ democratic model of selection interfere with the development or continuance of a diverse workforce?  What should it do to prevent such difficulties? (Ch 2)
  4. How do you think globalization will affect Whole Foods over time?  Please explain several ways it could affect the company’s operations. (Ch 3)

Organizational Ethical Issues

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Mini Case 4 CH7 pg 322-323

The purpose of this assignment is to explain core concepts

related to stocks and to analyze the ethical implications of

decisions and promote ethical standards within organizations.

Read the Chapter 7 Mini Case on pages 322-323 in Financial

Management: Theory and Practice. Using complete sentences

and academic vocabulary, please answer questions a through d.

Using the mini case information, write a 250-500 word report

presenting potential ethical issues that may arise from expanding

into other related fields. In your discussion, proactively

strategize about possible expansion by explaining opportunities

to promote ethical standards within your organization.

APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is

expected.

This assignment uses a rubric.

Your employer, a mid-sized human resources management

company, is considering expansion into related fields, including

the acquisition of Temp Force Company, an employment agency

that supplies word processor operators and computer

programmers to businesses with temporary heavy workloads.

Your employer is also considering the purchase of a Biggerstaff&

Biggerstaff (B&B), a privately held company owned by two

brothers, each with 5 million shares of stock. B&B currently has

free cash flow of $24 million, which is expected to grow at a

constant rate of 5%. B&B’s financial statements

report marketable securities of $100 million, debt of $200 million,

and preferred stock of $50 million. B&B’s WACC is 11%. Answer

the following questions.

a. Describe briefly the legal rights and privileges of common

stockholders.

b. (1) Write out a formula that can be used to value any stock,

regardless of its dividend pattern. (2) What is a constant growth stock? How are constant growth

stocks valued?

(3) What happens if a company has a constant g that exceeds its

rs? Will many stocks have expected g > rs in the short run (i.e.,

for the next few years)? In the long run (i.e., forever)?

c. Assume that Temp Force has a beta coefficient of 1.2, that the

risk-free rate (the yield on T-bonds) is 7.0%, and that the market

risk premium is 5%. What is the required rate of return on the

firm’s stock?

d. Assume that Temp Force is a constant growth company whose

last dividend (D0, which was paid yesterday) was $2.00 and

whose dividend is expected to grow indefinitely at a 6% rate.

(1) What is the firm’s current estimated intrinsic stock price?

(2) What is the stock’s expected value 1 year from now?

(3) What are the expected dividend yield, the expected capital

gains yield, and the expected total return during the first year?

 

Computer Science

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Question 1 of 5: (10 points)
Part 1 (6 points)

1. Systems analyst                                 2. Data structure

3. Bipolar closed questions                        4. Logical data structures

5. Context diagram                                 6. Data store

7. Agile approach                                  8. Funnel structure

9. Level-0 diagram/                                10. Systems analysis and design

11. Object-oriented systems analysis & design      12. Prototyping

13. Data flow diagram                              14. Physical data structures

15. Probes                                         16. Sampling

17. Open-ended questions                           18. Closed-ended questions

19. Agile modeling                                 20. Ajax

21. Data element                                   22. Questionnaire

23. External entity                                24. Child diagram

25. Joint application design                       26. Systems consultant

27. Human-computer interaction                     28. Data dictionary

29. Systems development life cycle                 30. Application service provider

 

Match any of the key terms above with the definition that best fits it (Ignore any
key terms that do not fit.)

 

·       ___________________ is the organizational role most responsible for the analysis and design of information systems.

·       _______________________ is a picture of the movement of data between external entities and the processes and the data stores within a system.

·       _______________________ are questions in interviews that ask those responding to choose from among a set of specified responses.

·       ________________________ is a data flow diagram that represents a system’s major processes, data flows, and data stores at a high level of detail.

·       ________________ is a data flow diagram of the scope of an organizational system that shows the system boundaries, external entities that interact with a system, and the major information flows between entities and the system.

·       __________________________ is a structured process in which users, managers, and analysts work together for several days in a series of intensive meetings to specify or review system requirements.

Part 2 (4 points)

Label each question as either closed-ended (CE) question or open-ended (OE) question.

a.  Why do you perform the task that way?  ______________________________________

b.  How are the checks reconciled?  _____________________________________________

c.  Is the calculation procedure described in the manual?  ______________________

d.  Do you review the reports before they are sent out?  ________________________

e.  What is the volume of shipments on an average day? __________________________

f.  How is the system updated when a shipment is sent? __________________________

g.  How are returns handled? ____________________________________________________

h.  How are employee responsibilities divided among the various procedures? _____

Question 2 of 5: (25 points)
Part 1 (10 points)

An analyst needs an organized method for collecting facts. Some systems analysts will frequently jump right into interviews. They believe, “Go to the people. That’s where the real facts are!” Wrong! This approach fails to recognize an important fact of life: People must complete their day-to-day jobs. You may be thinking, “But I thought you’ve been seen saying that the system is for people and that direct end user involvement in systems development is essential. Aren’t you contradicting yourselves?”

Write a paragraph to offer your opinion on the issue described in the above statement.

*** For this question, please limit your response to half a page.

Part 2 (15 points)

Given that you can use all six information-gathering techniques: (1) document analysis or investigation, (2) conduct interviews and discussion with users, (3) observe the work environment and document business processes, (4) distribute and collect questionnaires, (5) sampling, and (6) conduct joint application design (JAD) sessions.

Using all of these six techniques, propose a general step-by-step strategy (which technique goes first and which technique goes next) to discover information system requirements and provide an explanation of your strategy decision.

*** For this question, please limit your response to a maximum of one page.

 

Question 3 of 5: (25 points)
Part 1 (15 points)

Suppose you are evaluating two hardware lease proposals. Option 1 costs $10,000, but requires that the entire amount be paid in advance. Option 2 costs $12,000, but thepayments can be made $2,000 now and $2,000 per year for the next five years.

If you do a present value analysis assuming a 2 percent discount rate, which proposal is less expensive? (Hint: Use the formula  1/(1 + i)n to find the multipliers
for years 1 to 5.)

*** For this question, please limit you response to a maximum of two pages.
Justify all your numerical answers and answer all the questions using your own words.
Show all your work, including how you found your answer (this is very important and
essential to have your answer graded appropriately!).

 

Part 2 (10 points)

Mr. Smith, who owns a furniture company, wants to develop an information system for tracking shipments to warehouses. Using the data from the table below, please do the following:

  1. Draw a Gantt chart to help Mr. Smith organize his design project. (4 points)
  2. Drawn a PERT diagram and then list all paths, calculate and identify the critical path. (6 points)

 

Description Task Must Follow Time (Weeks)
Generate data flow A None 7
Build decision tree B A 4
Build data dictionary C B 10
Write up project D C and H 4
Design output prototype E None 2
Revise output design F E 9
Write use cases G None 10
Design database H G and F 8

 

 

Question 4 of 5: (10 points)

In the following proposed DFD design, there are some typical errors among external entities (E1 and E2), processes (P1, P2, and P3) and data stores (DS1, DS2, and DS3). Identify and explain any errors in the following design.

 

 

 

Question 5 of 5: (30 points)

A summary of business activities for registering courses for enrolled students
and for registering class lists for faculty members and administrators at an
online university is as follows:

Students log into a system with their “user name and password” that is validated by a secure logon system handled by a “Network and Security” department. Students then send in a course registration form consisting of their personal information and their desired courses. The system checks that the courses are available and that the student is academically qualified to take the course.

Students could pay for their courses by credit cards or they could pay through the Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), if qualified. For the FAFSA students, the system checks with the “Business” department to see if the student is financially qualified to take the course. For credit cards, the system validates students’ credit card information through a credit card company and generated appropriate status message to students.

Based on the checking results, the system will send to the student a confirmation and/or rejection letter for each requesting course with detailed information of what to do next in either case. In addition, for any rejection cases, the system will also notify the Counselor department so students could arrange appointments to talk with their counselors to resolve their issues, if possible.

1. Draw a context-level diagram for the Courses Registration system. Please make sure to include reasonable data flows for the diagram (20 points)

2. For the level-0 diagram, please list necessary processes and data stores for the Courses Registration system. Note that there is no need to draw this level-0 diagram. (10 points)

Review the Whole Foods Case Study (pp. 1-6) and answer the questions connected to Chapters 1, 2, and 3 as listed below.  Responses to each question should range from 100-200 words. Your paper should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards (12 point Times New Roman font, double-spacing, 1″ margins, title and reference pages).  Be sure to use the text and/or other sources to support your responses and properly cite the use of such.

  1. Describe how Whole Foods uses human capital as a course of competitive advantage. (Ch 1)
  2. Identify the aspects of high-involvement management contained in Whole Foods’ approach to managing its associates. (Ch 1)
  3. How could Whole Foods’ democratic model of selection interfere with the development or continuance of a diverse workforce?  What should it do to prevent such difficulties? (Ch 2)
  4. How do you think globalization will affect Whole Foods over time?  Please explain several ways it could affect the company’s operations. (Ch 3)

Homework And Template

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Homework I:

Assignment: Writing Effective Job Descriptions

Human beings undergo a natural life cycle from birth to death, passing through several stages along the way. Organizations might view human resource activities as a similar cycle from the initial hiring to the eventual termination of employment for various reasons such as promotion or transfer. Public health administrators are often involved in this human resources cycle, from workforce planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, on-boarding, training and development, and coaching and performance appraisal. One of the most critical tasks in this cycle is recruiting and selecting individuals for public health positions who have the right skills and qualities for the position. In addition, it is important that these skills and qualities remain current as the organization and requirements change.

Although each organization and position will have unique requirements, public health administrators can become familiar with best practices in human resources. In the Learning Resources, The Public Health Foundation (n.d.-a) provides insights on public health job descriptions based on Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, for example. Such best practices will help public health leaders create job descriptions aimed at attracting the most potentially successful candidates for the positions. Human resources professionals may revise job descriptions for existing staff to keep the organization current, as well.

For this week’s Assignment, review the Learning Resources, including the media titled Recruitment, Selection, and Retention. Consider what the individuals considered challenges in hiring and which best practices they follow in creating job descriptions. Then, read the following scenario. Browse through the various pages of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website, and read carefully through the section titled “Discrimination by Type.” Research online sources for typical salary ranges and similar job descriptions in the Midwest United States.

Scenario:

Imagine you are the Human Resources Director at Lake Troubled Shallows Health Department, from the Final Project scenario. A key employee, a community outreach coordinator, has left the position. The organization needs a new community outreach coordinator. You have been tasked with implementing best practices not only to fill the position but also to reevaluate and improve on the job description.

The Assignment (2–3 pages):

Section I

Create a new job description for a position in public health following best human resource management practices. The job description should include the following:

· Essential job duties

· Essential qualifications

· An average salary range for this position

· Recruitment and hiring strategies for this position

· Related employment laws (e.g., civil rights, age discrimination)

Section II: Summary

Describe how the job description (including duties and qualifications) might be different today from those needed in the recent past (e.g., 5 years ago) and why. Describe which best practices in human resources management you followed when creating this job description and explain why you considered them to be best practices.