Page 294 - Introduction to Business

268 PART 2 Managing Business Behavior

8. What is the idea behind job enrichment and job average production worker in the United States has
redesign programs? How do these programs risen from 42:1 to more than 400:1 (currently
contribute to corporate profitability? around 40:1 in Europe and Japan). What does this
9. What is the guiding principle behind work-life say about corporate leadership and social and
programs? What is the difference between flextime ethical responsibility on the one hand and
and part-time programs? What are the benefits and employee motivation on the other?
costs of these programs?
10. Self-managing teams have been found to be
successful when implemented properly. How does
this work, and how can managers measure Web Assignments
corporate benefits?
11. What are the challenges associated with 1. Container Store, www.containerstore.com, a
Dallas-based store, continues to offer some of the
telecommuting and alternative work styles? Are highest salaries in the retail industry. Container
these fads, or are they likely to become more Store was ranked second in “Fortune’s 100 Best
prevalent in the future?
12. What is leadership? With the help of a flow Companies to Work For” (Fortune, January 20,
2003). Visit the company website and identify the
diagram, show how leadership influences benefits that employees of Container Store receive,
corporate performance.
13. Summarize the three major leadership styles. What which motivate the employees and make the
company so great.
are the strengths and weaknesses of each? Identify 2. Motive Communications, www.motive.com, an
a corporate leader who falls in each category and Austin, Texas, software company, is not gunning for
explain how that person fits that category.
14. The business environment in which firms operate any best-company-to-work-for list. CEO Scott
Harmon’s credo is, “We’re not warm and fuzzy,
is constantly changing. In your opinion, which is there’s not a lot of cheerleading, and we don’t give
the leadership style that will be best suited to meet backrubs on Fridays.” What does Harmon imply by
our changing corporate needs?
15. What is the leadership style and employee saying that? Visit Motive’s website and determine
how that company motivates its employees.
motivational strategy followed in communist 3. Let’s assume that you currently have a full-time job
economies?
but you are one of those telecommuting wannabes.
Visit the work-life program website
Interpreting Business News www.workoptions.com, go over the checklist of
things to do before approaching the boss, and
1. Several investment banks on Wall Street were fined develop your own proposal to submit to your boss
millions of dollars by U.S. regulators for taking so you can switch to telecommuting. To find out if
kickbacks in the early 2000s from rich investors in you are temperamentally suited to work at home,
exchange for shares of hot initial public offerings visit AT&T’s website, www.att.com/telework/
(brand new stocks being sold in the market for the get_started, and the site managed by the Dallas
first time). On the basis of these revelations, what consultant Joanne Pratt, www.joannepratt.com/
can you say about employee motivation, wannabes.
leadership, and ethics within these firms? 4. Coca-Cola, www.cocacola.com, is one of the
2. Carlos Ghosn of France’s Renault company, took most globalized companies in the world, with
over a near-bankrupt Nissan Motor Company in the bulk of its revenues and profits coming from
1999 and turned it to profitability in record time. abroad. The CEO of Coca-Cola would like
Why was Ghosn trying to turn Nissan around? consumers in every country it operates in to
What does this say about the globalization of think of Coca-Cola as a local, not a U.S., company.
business and Ghosn’s leadership style? Why, and how? Visit Coca-Cola’s website, find out
3. Since the early 1980s, the ratio of the chief more about its CEO, and figure out her/his
executive’s compensation package to that of the leadership style.

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