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Administrative
Policy 489
Instructor: Jerry Gosen E-mail Office Hrs: MW 9:00-11:00
5046 Carlson Bldg
Face2face Office hours:
T: 12:15 -3; Th: 1:15- 2:30
E-mail:
gosenpuj@uww.edu goggsenpuj@mail.uww.edu
Micromatic: oaktreesim.com/micromatic
/THIS OUTLINE CONTAINS INFORMATION ON HOW I GRADE.
WHEN I GRADE CASES, I FOLLOW THE GRADING CRITERIA CONTAINED IN THIS
OUTLINE. YOU SHOULD READ IT, NOW AND JUST BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR CASE ANALYSES.
Course Objectives: This
is the capstone course in your undergraduate program.
It is intended to give you experience in (1) integrating concepts from a
variety of fields‑notably business environmental analysis, strategic
management, accounting, finance, marketing, production-operations, economics,
organizational behavior and organizational theory,
(2) applying concepts to descriptions of real life situations, (3)
understanding the perspectives of top management, (4) digging deep and
organizing large amounts of information in diverse forms including theoretical,
simple statistical, and financial, for analysis and decision making purposes
and (5) understanding the features, dynamics and types of strategy.
This course focuses on decisions top management must make to help their
firms become more effective.
Method
of Instruction:
A multi‑mode instructional approach will be used, including
"outside" and textbook readings, case analysis and discussion, outside
speakers and a computerized management decision making game.
Note:
In many ways this is a review course.
It covers concepts you’ve been exposed to in other courses. Here you
integrate and apply these concepts.
Grading:
Written Case Assignments
45%
Class participation
15%
Quizzes
10%
Game
30%
Competitive Performance
10-20%
Game Reports
10-20%
NOTE:
On the fifth page of this syllabus there are grading criteria for cases.
I use them to grade your case analyses.
The
final case is a capstone case and therefore important.
I grade in a way that prevents
“blowing off” the final case. Concretely:
IMPORTANT
NOTE:
You
cannot get a final grade of A without at least a 75 on the final case.
You
cannot get a final grade of B without at least a 70 on the final case.
You cannot get
a final grade of C without at least a 60 on the final case.
You cannot get
a final grade of D without at least a 50 on the final case.
The
Game
You
will be participating in a computerized business game or simulation.
It will cost you $40 to register. In it, you will own a business which
makes and sells Micromatic. You can consider these like
small appliances. Thirty percent of
your course grade depends on performance associated with the game.
Up to twenty percent depends on performance from game decisions. That
grade will depend, to a great degree, on how profitable your business is.
In determining each company's numerical performance score on the game,
accumulated results will be considered.
Criterion
Weight
Net Income(after taxes)
40%
ROA
10%
Return on sales
25%
Stock Price
10%
Sales
15%
When
you register it is highly recommended that you play Solo as a way to get used
to the game. Those who do not very often play the competitive game at a
disadvantage.
You
will begin the competitive game in teams of 3 (perhaps 2).
About 4 quarters into the game, I will copy the game program into 3
games, teams will split, and each player will take the team’s company into a
new industry, and then begin the game over.
Players will compete against other individual players from other teams.
Game
Reports
Part of your game grade is based on reports on game progress.
There will be 2 reports one by teams and one by individuals, but the
second one will count more. If the
second is higher than the first, the first one will not count at all.
If the first is higher than the second, the first one will count one
quarter as much as the second.
The
assignment for both reports is to use game knowledge and understanding to
explain why you did as well or poorly as you have in the game.
Criteria
1. Accuracy, thoroughness and importance of game understanding.
2. Clearness and thoroughness of understanding of why you did as well or
as poorly as you did in
the game.
3. Use of data
4. ability to capture game complexity
Criteria 1 and 2 count more than 3 and 4
Cafeteria
Grading There will be cafeteria
style grading for the game, as follows. Students
will be able to choose the game grade weights among 2 possible grades:
performance on the game itself, and reports analyzing game performance.
The total of % associated with the game must equal 30.
Minimum
Maximum
Game performance
10
20
Reports
10
20
Classroom
Procedures and the Participation and quiz Grades:
The
subjective participation grade will depend on classroom participation, on case
write ups, and on attendance.. I
will try and assess whether you are prepared for class. Not preparing and missing class will hurt your participation
grade. So will dominating
discussion and disruptive behavior.
Regarding
attendance, you will lose 1 pt. from your participation grade for your 3rd
and 4th absences and 1 1/2 pts. for each subsequent absence.
(1 hour and 15 minutes = a class)
For those who choose to not participate verbally you can prove
preparation by supplying a paper summarizing and analyzing the case or chapter.
The paper should be about a page. Credit
will not be
given for papers summarizing only parts of the case.
Less credit will be given when only short
cases are summarized. More
credit will be given for thoughtful analyses.
Quizzes.
You r grade on quizzes counts 10% of your grade.
Pop quizzes can be on cases or assigned chapters or articles.
I’ll quiz you on more than half the cases and articles I assign you.
I grade on the degree to which your answers to quizzes reflect thorough
participation. Partial or
non-thorough preparation could result in a poor quiz score.
Written
Case Assignments:
Case assignments mean written cases to be done at home and handed in.
There will be two. The last
will be a comprehensive case.
1st assignment
15%
2nd
assignment
30%
THIS OUTLINE CONTAINS INFORMATION ON HOW I GRADE.
WHEN I GRADE YOUR PAPERS, I FOLLOW THE GRADING CRITERIA CONTAINED IN THIS
OUTLINE. YOU SHOULD READ THEM, NOW AND JUST BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR CASE ANALYSES.
Criteria
for Grading Cases:
Maximum page limit for case analysis: 6 pages on the 1st
case, 9 on final. This is not a rigid limit. If it takes you more pages than
6 (or 9 for the final case) to make the points you feel you need to make, then
go over the limit. The limit is
there partially to encourage you to be succinct and partially to discourage
padding, that is just writing to write a long paper or show me you know
‘stuff.’
A.
Report and interpret data fully and appropriately.
Any data contained in the case that sheds light on important case issues
should be reported and interpreted. Ratios, expenses, sales and/or income
figures should be reported over time and compared with industry and/or similar
firms, especially if pertinent to the rest of the analysis. Data not compared
will receive lowered grades. Ratio analysis is particularly important.
Expense analysis can also be very important.
Papers without financial analysis and ratios and papers without
calculations done by the student will receive low grades on the data grading
criteria.
The
appropriate data should be reported. For
example, in Wendy's, sales rates are more important
than the current ratio.
Doing
calculations on your own will count more than mere reporting; e.g., For company
X has lost $20, 50, 80, 115, and 135 million
over the past 5 years. Looks bad
doesn't it? But the losses are at a
decreasing rate.
Doing such simple (or more complicated) calculations, if relevant,
will help your grade.
Data
should be interpreted. Data should
help explain whether a company’s choices are good ones.
For example, if it is expanding, are its returns and activity ratios
increasing with size? Data should
also exhibit the results of case phenomena and events.
For example, in Wendy’s, prices increased and franchisees lowered
quality. These are reflected in
lower profit margins and lower sales per franchise store.
Data
conclusions should connect to your strategic analysis.
If, for example, you want your company to diversify, and your data shows
a consistent drop in profits for the present products and services, you can use
the data to support your strategic suggestions.
Or if a company is growing and its return on sales is dropping, that
justifies criticizing a growth strategy.
B.
Identify strategies and deal with the appropriate level of strategy.
Sometimes a key specific strat‑ egy means a lot for survival,
growth, or the profit picture of the firm.
In that case, describe and evaluate that strategy.
More often though, it's more important for this course to deal with
general direction strategies (e.g. quality hamburgers for adults for Wendy's).
At any rate, you will be graded on 1) whether or not you describe
accurately the strategies of the firm or corporation, 2) the degree to which you
choose the proper level of strategy, 3) whether the strategies you choose are
the key ones for the firm and 4) the degree to which your list completely
describes the company stra- tegies. Sometimes,
key general direction strategies are not obvious, but you may be graded on how
well you find them. That means that
some key strategies are not explicit in the case and you’ll be expected
to find strategies inherent in patterns of and decisions made by the company.
For example, acquiring a specific company or developing a particular
product is not a general direction strategy, but acquisitions or
developing new products often is.
C.
Evaluate and recommend due to the correct reasons.
Evaluation of strategies should be in terms of 1) environmental features
or trends; 2) company strengths, weaknesses and/or resource positions; 3) stage
of product market evolution, for example when the market is growing fast; 4)
values of key people; 5) competitive position, 6) the market trends; 7) features
of the industry; 8) features of the market, and 9) customer characteristics.
For example, Wendy's chicken/salad bar strategy was appropriate
because they had a reputation for quality (strength), there was a market of
health‑conscious adults who were in a hurry (customer characteristics)
and their present market was getting older and more health conscious (market
features). Also beef prices were
increasing (an environmental trend). And
the more of the above reasons you use the better.
If you evaluated Wendy's in terms of both the strength and the
environmental factors plus perhaps other factors, you'd get a higher grade than
if you used only one factor. You
don't always have to recommend future strategies, but if you do, say why in
terms of the members of the above list. Students
often do not do well on this criterion.
D.
Write well and write an analysis that hangs together.
Try to get your recommendations to be based on the rest of your analysis.
If you recommend changes in direction for the company, show how its
present direction has produced negative financial results and/or show how the
present direction is not appropriate. Likewise,
if the data says to you that the company is performing OK and you see present
strategies as appropriate, then you don't have to recommend changes.
What if the data says one direction, and your evaluation of a present
strategy says something else? For
example, financially the company is doing OK, but they could do even better if
they adapted to changing market trends. In
this case, present your conclusions acknowledging or considering the pros and
cons of all choices. At any rate,
you will be graded on how well your analysis is coherent, how well it is
written, and how well you capture the case's complexity.
E.
Correct use of theory.
Theory refers to application of the concepts from lecture and the
assigned readings (or applying points you learned from previous cases or the
game). This category might
be worth less than the others. (If the other categories are worth 15 points,
this one may be worth as little as 5 but could be worth 10.)
And there will be a higher likelihood that I will add more points for a
good job on this category than on the others.
F
Analyze rather than describe and judge.
The analysis needs to focus on why strategic decisions are made, their
consequences and
appropriateness. In
this course, merely describing actions, events and decisions or merely judging
actions or decisions (without assessing the appropriateness in terms of C.
above) will likely earn a low grade. It
should be noted that during class I will describe decisions on the environment,
strategies, etc. but I will always try to put these in analytic (causes,
meanings, consequences, appropriateness) frames by the end of class discussion.
G.
Deal with the important issues as defined by the author and me.
I rarely give trick cases. So what the case is about is usually fairly
clear. Often there is more than one
correct focus. So you need to
figure out what the case is about and organize your paper (to at least some
degree) around that.
H. For the final case only, show how the way strategy is implemented is
consistent with company strategies.
Usually
I grade in the following manner. I
begin with 100 points. Then I
subtract (or sometimes add) points depending on how analytical you are, how
strategic you are, how well you handle data, how well you evaluate strategy and
how well your analysis hangs together (i.e., I use the criteria A, B, C, D, E,
F, G, H above. Usually, A, B, C,
count the most, with G the next most. E
and H count the next most. Of the 6
categories I’m most likely to add points for E.
I very rarely add points for D and F, but I rarely subtract points and
very rarely subtract more than a few for D and F.
Materials:
-Cases not in text will be either handed out or
found on reserve or D2L
-Cases on reserve are on electronic reserve under
the name of the case.
Course reading materials not in the text may be obtained
thru the UWW Anderson Library WEBSITE. Click Find Reserves on the Library
home page. Click on the direct link
to course reserves. Sign in. On the course pull down menu, click on MGT 489. On
the professor pull down menu, click on Gosen. Click on search. Click on the item
you want. Items are often in parts;
you are responsible for all parts (unless otherwise specified).
D2L also contains course materials not found in the test,
discussion questions, as well as this syllabus.
Schedule
*Note: This
schedule is to be followed unless otherwise noted.
From time to time, I forget to announce the next day's assignment.
If I do forget, you are responsible for the earliest prepared for event
and assignment on the outline not already covered.
Also the schedule is necessarily tentative due to uncertainties regarding
the game, the time it takes for discussions and guest speakers.
Topic
Assignment
1.
Course & Strategy Introduction
Strategy
evaluation lecture
likely due every Tuesday @ 9AM unless otherwise specified
Core Competency Lecture TSG:
8.
Dell con’t
9.
Value Chain; Krispy Kreme (CHO)
10.Krispy
Kreme con’t
TSG 110-114
Kremed
(AER)
Turbulent
environments
Landscape (AER)
To be handed out
Game changes to individuals
Dell revisited
Diversification Lecture
TSG 272-283
Globalization Lecture
Yip (AER)
Implementation
Lecture
Individuals TSG 322-324, 359-365
25.
Social Responsibility
TSG
= Case in text
AER=
Article on Electronic Reserve
CHO=
Case handed out
Jerry Gosen Office Hrs.
Carlson 5046 Amer. Family MW 8:15-9:00
gosenpuj@uww.edu Email MW 9-11
262-472-3956
T: 5-6:30
/facstaff.uww.edu/gosenpuj/Teaching%20Philosophy.htm
Points to be made.
Doing business internationally (as opposed to domestically
only) is a given. Way more than 90%
of all companies will have to deal with entities from foreign lands.
As examples: the vast majority of electrical appliances
are made outside the US, and companies are outsourcing (to foreign lands)
an increasing number of units and employees.
National Culture counts; companies have to adjust to the
culture they are dealing in. (For example if a company establishes a unit in a
Moslem country, it must allow employees time for daily prayers.)
However more factors than culture influence international business
behavior, and these non-cultural factors can, in many cases, be more important
than culture.
As an influence, culture impacts how companies deal with
their employees and customers. It
also influences and modifies the way companies manage human resources.
Culture has less influence over finance, manufacturing and strategy.
In the search for understanding cultural stereotypes
furnish a beginning, but they are only that.
Consider that the stereotype is that the Japanese fear uncertainty, while
the American stereotype is much the opposite. Why then, are American inter-company relations extremely
legalistic and Japanese companies relate to each other with a handshake?
The international business world is very complicated and
competitive – to the point that countries compete with each other for
business. Note for example how many
produced in Hollywood movies are made in Canada, Central Europe, or Mexico.
As opposed to domestic or multi-national, businesses are
using a global strategy (global means the same strategy in every country.
As businesses get more global, business practices become increasing more
uniform. These practices are not totally uniform and national culture still
influences but practices are becoming more homogenous. Consider how different a
computer is for a Russian person than it is for an Australian.
Coordination among parts of companies and among partners is
a key competitive advantage.
Knowledge management and transfer is an important
consideration and the above- mentioned coordination helps with knowledge
management.
The international business environment is rapidly changing.
Players have to be adaptive and flexible. Employees
need to be treated so that they too are knowledgeable and flexible.
This is true even in cultures that are authoritarian.
The whole value chain needs to be managed for competitive
advantage. This is true domestic or
international, macro or micro. Wal-mart
is a great example.
Cross-border outsourcing is a given. Outsourcing
thoughtfully is a competitive advantage advantage. Outsourcing thoughtfully is
more than finding cheap labor.
Morality in the international business place is tricky.
There are some absolute “bads”, but what is good or bad often changes
with the situation.
It is very possible that changes in the course schedule,
procedures, and/or requirements will be necessary. If necessary, such changes
will be announced.
Individual Case Analyses 25
Class Participation 25
Project 25
Exam 25
Most class sessions will entail discussions of cases and
articles. The participation grade
will be based on attendance and the instructor’s impressions of the quality of
a person’s discussion and the degree to which he or she is prepared.
Regarding attendance, you will lose
1 pt. from your participation grade for your 2nd absence and 2.5 pts.
for each subsequent absence. The penalty for leaving in the middle of class
without an excuse is 2.5 points.
I reward preparedness, thoughtfulness,
and discussing (reacting to others, asking questions, challenging others’
[including the instructor]. Because
this is a small class, I will easily be able to judge preparedness, and that is
the most important thing. Still the
following will also apply.
The participation part of your grade
cannot be entirely objective, for three reasons.
First, it is based on whether or not you are participating from
preparedness and I will not be able to always judge that objectively.
Second, I must judge quality (thoughtfulness) of contribution and that is
also not done easily, objectively. Third, attitude is a factor.
I must distinguish contributions whose purposes are solely to get participation
points from those which are intended to teach, reflect, add to the discussion,
or obtain learning. I try to reward
input that builds off of others’ input, shows a willingness to disagree, seems
thoughtful or welcoming of other’s opinions.
I try not to reward dominance. Quantity counts but it is not the only
factor.
Talking
is not required. If you do not want
to talk and still want a decent grade, you can write summaries of assigned
readings, and cases. Credit will not be given for papers summarizing only parts
of an assignment. More
credit will be given for thoughtful analyses. On the other hand in a small
class, it will be hard to avoid discussions, because I will call on individuals
for their opinion.
Projects
Students can chose their project,
within limits. The project must
deal with some aspect of international management.
It must be both international in scope and deal with management.
It should have a point of view, for example: 1) prove a point or
hypothesis, 2) point out a set of problems and how to solve them, 3) analyze why
an entity is as successful or as unsuccessful as it is, 4) suggest, how to do
something or why do something a certain way. The project must use articles and
cases from the class or a set of similar articles (or cases).
Projects need to be approved by me.
They need to be written, with references AND likely presented to the
class. Your grade will be on the
written document; in extremely rare cases a high quality verbal presentation
could raise a grade.
The best project will be on a topic
that you are interested in. If you can’t think of something unique to your
interests, then there are some examples of possible projects that follow.
Students can chose a company to analyze.
They should choose a company they are familiar with.
If possible, they should choose a company they’re working for or have
worked for. The project could be to
analyze the company in terms of a set of concepts from the course. Or the
company could have a problem and the student could solve it with the course.
You could argue against one of the course assumptions,
using course materials or materials that you have gathered. For example the course argues that culture is not the most
important factor in international relations.
You could argue a different opinion.
Students could focus on a particular country and analyze it in terms of a set of concepts from the course. Examples: A student could choose a country and take the US point of view suggesting how a US manager or company could effectively behave in that country. He or she could focus on the country, suggest why (companies in) it might be successful, suggest what problems companies in that country might have in operating internationally, or compare and contrast the country from others in doing business internationally.:
Grading Criteria
Understanding of Articles applied
Quality (accuracy, thoroughness) of application
Thoroughness
Thought
Perceived effort
Writing Quality and coherency.
Quality and Quantity of materials applied. (Wipedia used
beyond the slightest degree will get you a very low grade)
Cases:
Hopefully you will see that as we discuss cases in class, I
try to accomplish two things. First
I want (us) to understand the case, analyze what’s going on, ‘get’ why the
case was presented. For example the
Lincoln electric case was presented to show that American notions of monetary
incentive systems are rarely accepted in other lands. It also shows the
multi-nationals need to consider the context when establishing units overseas,
and that Americans can be naive. It also shows how humane a company can be to
its employees.
Second I want to apply theory to the case. The content of
many of the articles we study in this course apply to cases. I want us to see
how the theory applies to a real situation, how the theory of the course helps
us to enrich the understanding of the case. As a very general non-detailed
example, Lincoln’s strategy was a global one and they did not consider culture
when establishing their financial incentive system. Much of the cross- cultural literature suggests that when
individuals are involved, companies have to consider national culture when
establishing practices (such as an incentive system) and Lincoln did not. Also
both Yip and Porter (who wrote articles assigned in this course) would say that
a global strategy is appropriate for Lincoln because welding machines are used
the same world-wide.
Written Case
Grading Criteria: Written case
analyses will be graded on the following criteria.
1.
Quality of analysis. Do you
analyze rather than describe or judge? ? (Analyzing
means discussing why, using causes and consequences, and concretely judging
appropriateness of strategies and actions.)
Does your analysis hang together (do you present problem A and solve that
problem rather than solving problem B)? Are
you thorough? Are you thoughtful?
Does your paper capture the case's complexity?
I prefer
you to apply the articles to the case instead of using the case as an example of
the articles.
2.
Does the paper deal accurately, thoroughly, and in depth with concepts
emphasized in the course? By
depth I mean you cannot simply mention a general concept and expect to get
credit. For Example 1: You cannot
say in applying Yip that a company should use a global strategy because the
industry contains global drivers. You
must specify the global driver and explain how it exists in that industry.
Example 2: You cannot say a
company needs to be strategically flexible because it exists in the new
competitive landscape. You must
explain how its strategy needs to be flexible and what about its environment
makes it like the new competitive landscape.
3. Correct answer. The paper should deal with topics important to the case and the course. I’m more interested in 1)how well you apply the articles and 2) a thoughtful coherent analysis than if you get the “correct” answer, but if you don’t deal with important issues raised by the both the case and the course, your grade will likely suffer.
4.
Perceived Effort.
There is
no precise formula for which of the above counts more or less.
E.G., very poorly written papers may fail even if OK on the other
criteria, or a great paper on an incorrect but important topic may get an A
(while an adequate paper on a trivial topic may get a D).
In general though, criteria 2 counts the most, 1 the next most, and 3 and
4 the least (but 4 could count considerably against you).
Cases should be less than 12 pages.
There is no minimum.
It is very possible that changes in the course
schedule, procedures, and/or requirements will be necessary. If necessary, such
changes will be announced
Schedule
Week 1
Introduction and Whether how to go
global
Gupta and Govindarajan: Cultivating a global mind-set
Porter: Changing Patterns of International Competition
Case: Airview Mapping
Week 2
Cross Cultural Issues
Gardenswartz: Cross Cultural Awareness
Pressey and Selassie: Are cultural differences over rated
Plenert: Developing a Production System in Mexico
Plenert: Tremec Revisited:An update on developing a Production System
in Mexico
Osland and Bird: Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping
Case: West Indian Yacht Club
Week 3: Written Case analysis to
be determined
Human Resource Management
Toi and DeNisi: A local perspective to expatiate sucess
Lecture on Human Resource Management
Case: Lincoln Electric Harsh Lessons
Managing
Ownership
Lee and O’neill: Ownership a structures and R&D investment of U.S. and
Japanese firms
People Management
Lunnon et al.: Global transfer of management practices
Week 4: Written case
analysis (case to be determined, due Monday of Week 4)
Strategy:
Global/Local
Yip: Global Strategy in a world of nations
Kostava and Roth: Social Capital in multinational corporations and (part
1 only)
Case: South African Brewery
Adapting to an unstable environment
Hitt, Keats and DeMarie: Navigating
in the new competitive landscape
Case: Puma
Week 5: Project due
(Wednesday of week 5)
Exam to be handed out
(Wednesday of week 5)
Supply Chain Strategy
Trent and Monczka: Pursuing Competitive Advantage thru integrated
global sourcing
Business Week (Engardio) The future of Outsourcing
Liker and Wu: Japanese automakers, US suppliers, supply chain
Superiority
Case: GE Med
Knowledge Management
Dyer and Nobeka: Creating and managing a high power knowledge
sharing Network
Micro-Enterprise
Hoque: Stagnated growth of Micro-enterprises and the flawed role of
credit NGO’s: Evidence from
Bangladesh Not in D2L; will be handed out
Excerpts from an article by Arunachalam and Asha also to be handed out
Sweatshop Discussion:
Do not read Two Cheers for Sweatshops until next week
Week 6 Exam Due (Thursday of week 6)
*Alliances
Lecture on Alliances
Case: Hero-Honda Not in
D2L; will be handed out
Ethics
Two Cheers for Sweatshops
Donaldson: Values in tension: Ethics away from home
Case: Lockeed
Instructor:
Jerry Gosen
Office
Hrs: T-4:30-6:15
Office:
Carlson 5046 email
home MW - 9:00-11:00
Phone:
472-3956
Text:
Cohen, Fink, Gaddon & Willits, Effective Behavior in Organizations.
Other course
materials:
Either Electronic Reserve or D2
Catalog
Description:
250301 ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR
A study of
the behavior and attitudes of people in an organizational setting:
the organization's effect on their perceptions, feelings, and actions;
and their effects on the organization, particularly how their behavior affects
the achievement of the organization's purposes.
Course
Purpose:
The purpose of Management 301 is to acquaint you with concepts and skills
from the human side of management‑‑those which deal with the
management of people. The course
will be both cognitive and experiential, that is, the student will learn from
both readings (cognitive), one’s own experience (experiential) plus cases.
To a great degree, the readings, exercises, and cases cover the same
concepts.
The
course will be different from others you've taken at least to a great degree.
In some respects, this course will be more like having a job in an
organization than taking a class. We
will discuss just which respects during the course purpose discussion session
about a month from now. At any
rate, you will be asked to "get into it" (this course) personally.
You will be asked to examine how you are behaving and reacting to course
situations instead of sitting back passively taking in knowledge.
The fact is much of the focus of this course is on your class‑related
behavior as well as some general textbook concepts.
You will learn textbook concepts and you will be responsible for them,
but these concepts will serve as guides for your understanding for your own
behavior and not as material to regurgitate on an exam.
Grading:
In order to earn a high grade in this course, you must learn to thoroughly
analyze human (individual, inter‑personal, and group) situations.
For those purposes, papers and reports are better vehicles for testing
analytical skills than exams.
Graded Projects
Group Analysis Slade
15%
Individual Analysis Bob of a case TBA
15%
Group Analysis Pat the Porter
20%
Group Preparation for International Panel
10%
Term Paper
35%
Assignments
and Grading Criteria:
the assignments and grading criteria for the International Panel,
cases and the term paper appear in D2L .
Regarding the
Case Analysis criteria, criterion 1 & 2 will be weighted more heavily than
#3. The
term paper
assignment sheets are there to give you ideas in case you are lost.
The term paper criteria are much more important in determining your
grade. The term paper example is a
B+ to A‑. It is organized by
concept. I prefer organization by
chronology or by important themes. Also,
regarding the term paper, I recommend you keep a journal.
Regarding
both the Case Analysis and Term Paper criteria, I want to call your attention to
the concluding comments. The listed criteria are guides and not to be blindly
followed at the expense of your best ideas.
Well thought‑out, creative, on target papers not following the
guidelines may be judged superior to those which do follow the guidelines but
only mechanistically. On the other
hand, papers merely expressing one's opinions and ignoring both the criteria and
the course concepts will be given low grades. Also for group projects, there will be a procedure for group
members to grade each other. That
procedure appears near the end of your packet.
It is highly
recommended to keep a journal. Doing
so improves your term paper capability.
International
Panel Preparation:
Late in the course I will organize a panel of people with international
experience. Each group will develop
questions for the panel, design its processes and/or raise issues for it to
discuss. The group's output will be
graded as to its relevance, thoughtfulness and perceived effort. The panel will help me grade this project.
A
further note on grading: to reduce
the influence of group work on grades and to stress the importance of the term
paper you cannot get a B in the course without at least a 72 on the term paper.
You cannot get a C in the course without at least a 62 on the term paper.
All Chapters
are in Cohen Fink [CF} Many of the readings and exercises are on D2L; some will
be handed out
Session
Event
Assignment
Week
1
1
Course Expectations
2
Polling Student Experience
4
Banana Time
The Case [CF] Skill lecture on
cause & effect
5
Group time for Bagel Hockey
Week
2
6
Atlantic Store Furniture
Ch. 4, 5, 6, The Case [CF]
Skill lecture on Multiple Causes
7
What Workers Want
What Workers Want- Do part 1
before class. Also bring Process Thermometer
(Materials in d2l)
Group Written Analysis: Bagel Hockey [CF]
8
Ultimate Frisbee
Case in packet. Bring Guideline for Ob-
servers (in D2L)
9
Purpose of course discussion
Note:
You are encouraged to prepare, communicate about and write Slade on
line and NOT meet face to face
Week
3
10
Olivia Francis
The Case [CF]. Ch. 8. Group written analysis
of
Slade (to be handed out)
13
Misbranded Goat
The case [CF] and How to reach an unreach-
able person (d2l) Ch. 11
Week
4
14
Feedback Exercise
Do written portion of exercise in d2l and
bring to class
15
Bully or Victim
The case [CF]. Ch. 12 Individual analysis of
of a case to be announced
17
Consumer Materials Inc. Ch.
13. Case [CF]. Preparation for
panel due
Week
5
18 International Panel
19 Smoke Stack
Village
The case [CF]. Ch. 14
Group written analysis Pat the Porter. This paper will be due August 8th,
a Wednesday. The graded papers will
be handed back August 9th
20
Barbra Debella
Case [CF]. To Touch or Not to Touch (d2l)
21
Is This the Right Time to Come Out
Case in D2L
Groups need to announce that they want to do a
course review presentation
Week
6
22-23 Course Review Exercise
24
Inter-group Sharing Exercise
Please do top two rows of form (in d2l) for
own group (How see selves and how you think
others see you)
25
What to do with Bob and Nancy
Case [CF]
TERM PAPER DUE AUGUST 17 AT NOON
Instructor:
Jerry Gosen
Office Hrs:
Office:
5046 Carlson Bldg
MW
11:30-1:30(2nd 8 weeks)
Phone:
(262) 472‑3956
R 4:30-6:15 (2nd 8 weeks)
E-mail: gosenpuj@mail.uww.edu
TR-9:00-11:00 (email only)
Text: Micromatic at hOaktreesim.com/micromatic
Course
Objectives:
This is a "capstone" course in your curriculum and thus its
purposes are general and integrative. The
course presents seemingly diverse phenomena and one of the major purposes of the
course is to help you integrate these. This
is an applied course. There is not
great deal of theory and your task is to apply theory rather than know and
present it. At times you will be
presented large amounts of information and you will need to dig through it,
organize it, analyze it, evaluate it, and come to conclusions.
It
is also a skills course. I will ask
you to identify and assess strategies and assess company effectiveness. I will
facilitate the learning of those skills. You
will be assessed on the degree to which you possess those skills.
It
is also a decision making class. You
will make total enterprise and strategic decisions for a simulated business.
Method
of Instruction:
This is a case analysis and simulation course.
Grading:
Two written case analyses
50%
Class participation/subjective evaluation
20%
Simulation 30%
Participation
Grade:
The subjective participation grade covers preparation, attendance and
participation. Not attending class
will hurt your participation grade. One
point will be subtracted from your grade for every 1/2 class missed, beginning
with the fourth.
Turning
in a brief description and analysis of the case(s) and chapter(s) missed will
modify the "hurt."
Preparation
is more important than talking. You
can still get an "A/B" in participation without saying a word in
class by turning in a brief description and analysis of 67% of the course's
cases and articles. (Don't be
"gamey" about this! You won't get an A/B if you turn in papers on only
the courses shortest cases.) And if
you feel you're not getting an A in participation, but you are talking, handing
in written descriptions and analyses will help.
The
papers to help your grade can be brief (under 2 pages).
They must show that you have read the whole case(s) and article(s) and
thought about them. That means you
must analyze.
However
the discussion grade encourages discussion. With regard to discussion I reward
preparation, quality and quantity in that order.
-talking
from thoughtful preparation will be rewarded greatly
-talking
to add to the discussion or stimulate controversy will be rewarded
-talking
to others will be rewarded
-talking
to me, talking to talk, talking to show off, talking from a lack of
preparation will not be rewarded
I
will also ask you to research for information to follow up on some of the cases.
I will assign cases and people on the first day of class.
The following is important. It describes the way I grade cases and should guide your
analysis as you write up your cases. There
is no format for how to do cases for me, but the content of your write ups
should be guided by what is contained below.
A.
Report and interpret data fully
and appropriately. Ratios,
expenses, sales and/or income figures should be reported over time and compared
with industry and/or similar firms, especially if pertinent to the rest of the
analysis. Ratio and expense
analysis is particularly important. Papers
without financial analysis and ratios and papers without calculations done by
the student will receive low grades on the data grading criteria.
Data should be reported
over time and compared with industry and/or similar firms, especially if
pertinent to the rest of the analysis. Data
not compared will receive lowered grades.
Doing
calculations on your own will count more than mere reporting; e.g., For company
X has lost $20, 50, 80, 115, and 135 million over the past 5 years. Looks bad doesn't it? But
the losses are at a decreasing rate. Doing
such simple (or more complicated) calculations, if relevant, will help
your grade.
Data should
help explain whether a company’s choices are good ones. For example, if it is expanding, are its returns and activity
ratios increasing with size? Data
should also exhibit the results of case phenomena and events.
For example, in the late 80’s, sales results for Briggs and Stratton,
the market leader in lawn mower engines, started dropping, and their margins
relative to the competition were small. The
competition was from Japan, they had lower labor costs, and over all better
efficiency than B&S. People
began to buy Japanese products and not Briggs and Stratton’s. Those facts show
up in market share and margin data. More
recently, Krispy Kreme’s sales and overall profits had leveled off, while debt
and capital investment margins were increasing.
These data reflect heavy investment in cost saving technology in the face
of the market’s reduced infatuation with KK’s product, and the cost savings
helped KK to maintain their profit
margins.
Data
conclusions should connect to your strategic analysis.
If, for example, you want your company to diversify, and your data shows
a consistent drop in profits for the present products and services, you can use
the data to support your strategic suggestions. Or if a company is growing and its return on sales is
dropping, that justifies criticizing a growth strategy.
B.
Identify strategies and deal with the appropriate level of strategy.
Sometimes a key specific strategy means a lot for survival,
growth, or the profit picture of the firm.
In that case, describe and evaluate that strategy.
More often though, it's more important for this course to deal with
general direction strategies (e.g. quality hamburgers for adults for Wendy's,
low cost for Dell). At any rate,
you will be graded on 1) whether or not you describe accurately the strategies
of the firm, 2) the degree to which you choose at least some general
comprehensive strategies, 3) whether the strategies you choose are the key ones
for the firm and 4) the degree to which your list completely describes the
company strategies. Sometimes, key
general direction strategies are not obvious, but you may be graded on how well
you find them. That means that some
key strategies are not explicit in the case and you’ll be expected to
find strategies inherent in patterns of and decisions made by the company.
For example, acquiring a specific company or developing a particular
product is not a general direction strategy, but acquisitions or
developing new products often is.
C.
Evaluate and recommend due to the correct reasons.
Evaluation of strategies should be in terms of 1) environmental features
or trends; 2) company strengths, weaknesses and/or resource positions; 3) stage
of product market evolution; 4) values of key people; 5) competitive position,
6) the market trends; 7) features of the industry; and 8) the customer.
For example, Wendy's chicken/salad bar strategy was appropriate
because they had a reputation for quality (strength), there was a market of
health‑conscious adults who were in a hurry and their present market was
getting older and more health conscious (Environmental factors.)
And the more of the above reasons you use the better.
If you evaluated Wendy's in terms of both the strength and the
environmental factors plus perhaps other factors, you'd get a higher grade than
if you used only one factor. You
don't always have to recommend future strategies, but if you do, say why in
terms of the members of the above list.
D.
Write well and write an analysis that
hangs together. Try to get your
recommendations to be based on the rest of your analysis.
If you recommend changes in direction for the company, show how its
present direction has produced negative financial results and/or show how the
present direction is not appropriate. Likewise,
if the data says to you that the company is performing OK and you see present
strategies as appropriate, then you don't have to recommend changes.
What if the data says one direction, and your evaluation of a present
strategy says something else? For
example, the company is OK, but they could do even better if they adapted to
changing market trends. In this
case, present your conclusions acknowledging or considering the pros and cons.
At any rate, you will be graded on how well your analysis hangs together
and how well you capture the case's complexity.
E.
Use of theory correctly. Theory
refers to application of the concepts from lecture and the assigned readings (or
applying points you learned from previous cases or the game). This category is usually worth less than the others.
(If the other categories are worth 15 points, this one may be worth as little as
5). And there will be a higher
likelihood that I will add more points for a good job on this category than on
the others.
F
Analyze rather than describe and judge.
The analysis needs to focus on why strategic decisions are made, their
consequences and appropriateness. In
this course, merely describing actions, events and decisions or merely judging
actions or decisions (without assessing the appropriateness in terms of
C. above) is discouraged. It should
be noted that during class I will describe decisions, the environment,
strategies, etc. but I will always try to put these in analytic (causes,
meanings, consequences, appropriateness) frames by the end of class discussion.
G.
Deal with the important issues as defined by the author and me.
I rarely give trick cases. So what the case is about is usually fairly
clear. Often there is more than one
correct focus. So you need to figure out what the case is about and organize
your paper (to at least some degree) around that.
The Game
You will be participating in a computerized business game or simulation.
In it, you will own a business which makes and sells Micromatics.
You can consider these like small appliances.
Thirty percent of your course grade depends on performance associated
with the game. Up to twenty points
depends on performance from game decisions (so not all the points devoted to the
game are based on performance). That grade will depend, to a great degree, on
how profitable your business is. In
determining each company's numerical score on the game, accumulated results
will be considered.
Criterion
Weight
Net Income(after taxes) 40%
ROA
10%
Return on sales
25%
Stock Price
10%
Sales
15%
Cafeteria
Grading
As indicated
above not all the points devoted to the game are based on performance. You will
also write game reports, and those will count for a grade. There will be cafeteria style grading for the game, as
follows. Students will be able to
choose the game grade weights among 2 possible grades: performance on the game
itself, and reports analyzing game performance. The total of % associated with the game must equal 30.
You can write 2 reports. If
you like your grade on the first one, you need not write a second one. Game
reports will be due after quarters 4 and 8.
Minimum
Maximum
Game performance
10
20
Reports
10
20
All readings, including articles and
cases are on on D2L or onelectronic reserve.
To get into electronic reserves, go to the Anderson Library web sight
(It’s a UWW web page) Click Find Reserves on the Library home page.
Sign in. On the course pull down menu, click on MGT 788. On the professor
pull down menu, click on Gosen. Click on search. Click on the item you want.
(you might have to click on the course again before you click on the
item). Items are often in parts;
you are responsible for all parts (unless otherwise specified).
SCHEDULE
Week
Topic
Assignment (if not specified,
assignments
in the ER = Electronic Reserve)
1. Introduction
2. Supply Chain
Perdue Chickens
8
Second Written Case Analysis (Southwest Airlines)
* Follow up requested. Puma is tentative
Jerry Gosen Office Hours: M W 9-11 email only
Carlson 5046 Th 4:30-6:15
262-472-3956 T-Th 10 –11. T 1:00-2:15senpuj@uww.edu
Teaching Philosophy: http://facstaff.uww.edu/gosenpuj/Teaching%20Philosophy.htm
Purpose: For students to become acquainted with, to understand, and to apply contemporary theory in Strategic Management.
Catalog Description:
See Catalog
Teaching Methodologies: This course concentrates on strategic theory.
I want you to know, understand and apply strategic theory and to be able
to judge the relevance of contemporary
theories in Strategic Management. You will be assigned readings covering
strategic theories and cases to which these theories can be applied.
Each class period, designated students will report on
assigned readings and present descriptions, analyses and applications to the
rest of the class. They (the designated students) will apply readings to an
organization or an industry of their choosing.
The report will placed on-line two days before the class is assigned to
discuss the reports (and readings). Each
student will be responsible for three reports.
It should be noted that some of the articles are difficult, and we will
spend some time in each class making sure we understand what the articles are
about.
We will also read and analyze cases. We will apply the articles to the cases.
In class we will discuss authors’ perspectives, but we will also discuss what you think is important about issues raised in the article.
Course Philosophies: For strategies to be good and successful, they need to be appropriate for the company’s external environment, in particular its market. For analyzing whether a set of strategies are good or not, it is not always easy to think through whether strategies are appropriate for the environment, but for most of the cases we encounter in this course, that thinking through is very important.
Successful strategies also take advantage of company strengths. It is good to develop a set of core competencies and build the company around those. The course explicitly deals with core competencies, a lot. It should be noted that not all strengths are core competencies.
Core competencies are central to this course. Strategies should be built on company strengths, and alliances, outsourcing decisions, and diversification choices should be made with core competencies in mind.
The course presumes that businesses face complex, rapidly changing environments. That is the rule rather than the exception. To thrive in those, businesses need to be innovative, flexible, and in close contact with and learn from entities in the environment. To operate that way, they need to decentralize and empower (at least some of their) workers. The course also presumes that efficiency is important for the success of most companies and that reducing costs is also important. In addition, the company needs to be guided; therefore control is important. Therefore, the course argues that a company needs to 1) be flexible, 2) adapt to rapidly changing environments, 3) empower workers, 4) be efficient, and 5) control strategy all at the same time. Combining those may seem weird, we will try to figure out how companies can do all five at the same time.
Grading
Midterm Exam 15%
Final Exam 25%
Course Project or case analysis 30%
Class Presentations
10%
Class Participation
20%
The exams will cover the readings, and passing them
will require knowing all or at least most of them. The exams will either be take home OR in-class, closed-book,
and you will receive the questions a week or more prior to the exam.
In order to get a B or better on the exam you must use the meat of the
articles in your answers. The meat means information in the actual paragraphs of
the articles. If you just use topic headings (and it is not crystal clear to me
that you know what it’s in the paragraphs of that topic), you will get less
than a B. Applying quotes from student presentations without using the meat of
the actual articles will also get you less than a B.
The project will entail you applying the first five
units of the class -- general strategy, competencies and the environment, the
value chain, and types of strategies -- to an organization of your choosing.
You need not apply all the articles, but you need to apply enough of them
for me to be pretty sure you are familiar with all of them.
It is far better to apply the articles to your company than
your company’s strategies to the article.
That means you begin with and organize you paper around features
(strategies) of your company instead of vice versa. In addition, the project should make a point. Examples: If
your company is successful, why in terms of the articles? If your company has problems, use the articles to explain why
the company has them.
It is better (but not imperative) that you use a company
with which you have direct contact than a company where the
information you attain is from the internet.
As with the exam you must use the meat of the articles in
your project. If not or if you only
quote student presentation information, you will get less than a B.
Grading Criteria for the project:
Understanding of Articles applied
Quality (accuracy, thoroughness) of application
Thoroughness
Thought
Perceived effort
Writing Quality and coherency.
As an alternative to the project you can write analysis of
a case that I will hand out. You
will be asked to analyze the cases as we do for the cases assigned for class
discussion, Dell as an example. The grading criteria will be similar to those
for the project.
As with projects and exams, you must use the meat of the
articles in your case analyses. If
not or if you only quote student presentation information, you will get less
than a B.
Note: I’m
more interested in how well you apply the articles and a thoughtful coherent
analysis than if you get the “correct” answer, but if you don’t deal with
important issues raised by the both the case and the course, your grade will
likely suffer. Again I prefer you to apply the articles to the case instead of
using the case as an example of the articles.
Class email presentations (of articles to be
discussed in class). Students are
expected to explain the article and it’s main points. They are also expected to explain how the article applies to
business in general, how useful it would be to the business practitioner, and to
an industry or company chosen by the student. Students will present three
articles. Some are extremely easy, and for those, I will simply present
discussion questions and there will be no student ‘presentation.
Presentations
will be graded on effort and thought. More
concretely, this means that you must show understanding of the main points of
the article and the degree to which and how the article applies in the real
world. Since the presentations will
be delivered via email, it is the email report that I will grade.
Participation
Grade: Although 1 – 3
students will present an article, everyone is responsible for reading and
discussing it. The subjective participation grade covers preparation, attendance
and participation.
With respect to the participation grade regarding talking...I reward preparation, quality and quantity in that order.
-talking from thoughtful preparation will be rewarded greatly
-talking to add to the discussion or stimulate controversy will be rewarded
-talking to others will be rewarded
-talking to me, talking to talk, talking to show off,
talking from a lack of preparation
will not be rewarded.
Preparation is
more important than talking. In a
small class, it is easy for me to tell whether participation comes from
preparation. Therefore it is not necessary for all your comments to reflect
preparation.
You can still
get an "A/B" in participation without saying a word in class by
turning in a brief description and analysis of about 2/3 of the course's cases
and articles. (Don't be "gamey"
about this! You won't get an A/B if
you turn in papers on only the courses shortest articles and cases.)
And if you feel you're not a high enough grade in participation, but you
are talking, handing in written descriptions and analyses will help.
Not attending
class will hurt your participation grade. Turning
in a brief description and analysis of the case(s) and chapter(s) missed will
modify the "hurt." Regarding attendance, one
point off for every 1/2 class missed, beginning with the third.
Unit
and Week
Assignment
Unit
# 1 Week 2
Porter, ‘What is Strategy’
Aaker, Leveraging the Corporate Brand
Unit
2 Week 3&4
Hitt, Keats and DeMarie, Navigating the new
Competencies and competitive landscape
the environment
Long and Vickers-Koch, Using Core Capabilities to create
competitive advantage
Dass and Picken Creating Competitive (Dis)advantage:
Learning from Food Lion’s free fall
Cases: Lincoln Electric and Lincoln Electric Harsh Lessons
Liker and Wu:
Japanese automakers, US suppliers, supply chain superiority
Mehri: The darker side of lean
Cases: Dell, Krispy Kreme
Week
7
Unit 4 Yoffie and Kwak, Judo Strategy: 10 techniques for beating
Competitive strategies a stronger opponent
Types of strategies: Kostovo and Roth, Social Capital in Multinational
alliances, global Corporations (Read only 297-300) NO REPORT
Yip, Global strategy in a
world of nations
Cases: Hero-Honda, Puma
Unit 5 Week 9&10 Goold and Luchs, Why Diversify
Types of strategies(con’t):
Diversification and Cascio: Strategies for responsible downsizing
Downsizing C
Cases: Ford, Cisco
Systems, and “Cisco Systems, developing
a human capital strategy”
Unit
6: Week 11
Implementation I:
Structural Issues
Burgelman and Grove, Strategic Dissonance
HARD
Randolf and Sashkin, Can organizational empowerment
work in
multi-national settings?
Case: Purdue Chickens
Unit
7:Week 12
Implementation II
Knowledge management Gupta and Govindarajan, Knowledge management’s
social dimension: lessons from Nuccor
Dyer and Nobeoka Creating and managing a hi
performance knowledge sharing
network: the Toyota Case
Unit
8: Week 13
Implementation III
Control
Kaplan and Norton, The balanced scorecard: Measures that drive
performance
Brand and Scanlon, Strategic control through core
Competencies HARD
Case: Wal-mart
Weeks
14-15 Projects due
Project
presentations (voluntary)