Assignment 3: Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies 
Due Week 6 and worth 300 points

Choose an industry you have not yet written about in this course, and one publicly traded corporation within that industry. Research the company on its own Website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University’s online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
2. Analyze the corporate-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the corporate-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
3. Analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporation’s most significant competitor.  Compare their strategies at each level and evaluate which company you think is most likely to be successful in the long term. Justify your choice.
4. Determine whether your choice from Question 3 would differ in slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets.
5. Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Identify various levels and types of strategy in a firm.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in business administration.
• Write clearly and concisely about business administration using proper writing mechanics.

Click here to view the grading rubric.

1) You are a manager of a department and you are looking to hire a new employee. During your search one of your supervisors says, “Just hire the first one that walks in. If that one doesn’t work out, we can always get another.” How would you handle this? Explain your answer in detail.

2) In today’s health care industry there is much consideration of the rights for patients and their privacy and confidentiality. However, when it comes to the concerns for health and safety of the public the rights for individuals are put aside. Do you feel this is right, and where do you think the line should be drawn? Explain your answer.

Your supervisor, Sarah Harris, is a new probation officer who has been on the job for only a few months and is still learning the job herself. You are asked to prepare a memo to Sarah Harris listing the five types of helping professionals that she might come into contact with during her job as a probation officer in a pretrial diversion program. Also, you will need to select one psychological theory and one social work theory from the list that you feel would aid her most in dealing with the adults on her caseload. You will need to explain the theories and why she needs to know this as probation officer. Use the following guidelines to complete your memo:

Between 200-300 words

• Be certain to have the following headings in your memo: (To: From: Re: Date :).
• Provide a list of at least 5 helping professionals that your supervisor may come into contact with during her job as a probation officer in a pretrial diversion program.
• Select 1 psychological theory and 1 social work theory from the list that you feel would aid her most in dealing with the adults on her caseload.

Use the following list below to guide you:

Psychological Theory

• Developmental psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Behavioral psychology
• Humanistic psychology
• Social psychology

Social Work Theory

• Crisis theory
• Solution-focused brief theory
• Structural family therapy/family systems therapy
• Psychosocial theory
• Psychodynamic theory

Objective:

To provide students with the opportunity to provide feedback to a service organization, as well as help students understand and evaluate the customer service and “recovery” strategies of a specific organization.

Directions:(I HAVE ALREADY FINISHED THE COMPLAINT LETTER MYSELF AND DO NOT GET ANY REPLY)

In order to complete this assignment, students will be expected to write a complaint letter to an organization from whom the student has, in his/her opinion, received bad or less-than-satisfactory service during the first few weeks of the course.  It does not have to be an extremely upsetting situation; it may be simply that the organization did not provide service that met expectations.  You should focus on a failure that is tied primarily to the service provision, not a deficiency in a tangible good sold by an organization.  The name and address of the appropriate person within the organization to whom a complaint should be directed needs to be obtained (this may take some research!) and then a formal complaint letter written in accordance with the instructions provided. 

All pertinent information (dates of service, names, account numbers, etc.) should be included in the letter, as well as a description of the poor service experience and, if appropriate, a suggested course of action the company could take to appropriately “recover” in this situation.  That is, the resolution being sought from the organization should be clear.  (Do not state in the letter that you are doing this as a class project.)  The letter should request a response from the organization and provide appropriate contact information for the student – a mailing address, e-mail address, phone number (if appropriate), or other relevant information.  Instructions for your complaint letter are provided at the end of this document.  All complaint letters will be sent via traditional postal service.   

Analysis Requirements:

After the organization has had sufficient time to respond to the complaint, students will write a short paper that analyzes the organization’s response (or lack thereof) to their complaint.  The analysis paper should include all of the following components including the associated headings and subheadings (i.e., letters/numbers) shown below. 

Your analysis is not a creative writing endeavor.  Provide a statement/question and follow it with your response.  See the example below.  Your responses should be in complete sentences. 

Z. Tell when you were born.  I was born on April 12, 1995. 

Your analysis paper should include at least 10 relevant service marketing concepts from the text and your writing should demonstrate that you have an understanding of these concepts.  This is after all the primary purpose of this assignment.  Concepts should be correctly used and clearly identified with bold, italic, or colored font. 

The grading criteria used to evaluate your paper include your ability to relate material from readings and lectures to your analysis, your ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match them with appropriate solutions, depth and substance of your observations, persuasiveness of your discussion, and quality of writing.  Concise, clear writing in both your complaint letter and your paper is expected.  As such, you will not receive extra credit for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., but will receive a poor evaluation on the assignment if these areas are found to be lacking.

Analysis Paper Outline:

Introduction

A.  Briefly describe what led to your dissatisfaction.

B.  Identify which factor most influenced your judgment of service quality (i.e., outcome quality, interaction quality, or physical environment quality).  Briefly explain your thinking.

C.  Identify the Provider Gap in the Gaps Model of Service Quality that you think was most likely to have resulted in your dissatisfaction.  Briefly explain your thinking.

D.  Identify which two service quality dimensions you think are key for the average customer purchasing that specific service.  Briefly explain your thinking. 

E.  Discuss what you wanted the organization to do in response to your complaint.

F.  State how quickly you expected the organization to respond to your complaint.

Organization Response

A.  If the organization did respond, the student should:	OR	B.  If the organization did not respond, the student should:
1.  Describe the organization’s response. 2.  Discuss the adequacy of the organization’s response (in your opinion as a consumer). 3.  Provide three reasons why you believe they responded in the manner they did. 4.  Discuss what the organization could have done better to delight you.		1.  Begin this section by explicitly stating that there was no response of any kind. 2.  Discuss at least three realistic reasons why you think you did not receive a response.  (Reasons that make their lack of a response your fault, like a wrong address, or an intermediary’s fault – i.e., mailman didn’t deliver the letter – are unacceptable.) 3.  Write a professional letter to yourself (on behalf of the organization) containing an appropriate response that addresses what you think the organization should have done.  This letter should be formatted using a business letter format and be included in the Appendix of this assignment. 4.  Discuss why the letter you wrote on behalf of the organization would be an adequate response.  (Note: What they should have done may not be exactly what you expected or wanted them to do.)

Discussion

A.  Visit the Better Business Bureau online at https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started .  Discuss how you think that registering your complaint online with an organization like the BBBonline might have influenced the organization’s response (i.e., what difference do you think it would have made if you had done so?)

B.  Discuss how you feel toward the organization now that you have seen their response to your complaint (or lack thereof) and how it will impact your use of their services again in the future.

C.  “The customer who complains is the organization’s friend.”  Discuss your perspective on this statement in general (not in the context of this specific experience).  Discuss what you think the organization’s perspective on this statement is, based on the behavior they exhibited. 

D.  Discuss what you have learned from this specific complaint experience about yourself and about complaining to organizations in general.

E.  Discuss how you can you apply what you have learned in your future in the business world. 

Appendix

A.  A copy of the complaint letter you sent to the organization.

B.  If received, a copy of the response from the organization (i.e., response by letter, e-mail, telephone, or any other form), if any.

C.  If received, a brief description of anything else the organization provided you as a result of your complaint (i.e., gift certificate, company materials). 

Imagine you work for a company that has recently merged with a global company. Write a brief introduction to your company as well as the company that merged with the company . Then develop an eight to ten (8-10) point checklist detailing what steps you would take as the HR manager to help unify the culture of both companies.

Create two (2) company introductions and develop an eight to ten (8-10) point checklist in which you:

1. Give a succinct overview of your fictitious company.
2. Give a succinct overview of the fictitious company merged with.
3. Develop an eight to ten (8-10) point checklist of steps you would take to unify company culture.
4. Explain your rationale for choosing each of the steps in your checklist.
5. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:

a. Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.

b. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, your professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

c. Use APA formatting to reference your work, including in-text references when necessary. See the APA Guide located in the Student Center tab.