Unit VIII Assessment

1. By what means can collective bargaining agreements be enforced? Discuss the five principles that govern the arbitration of grievances under collective bargaining. What measures are utilized in non-union environments? Your response should be at least 300 words in length.

2. How does an arbitrator determine that a company had just cause for taking a disciplinary action? What remedy might an arbitrator choose if a company did not have just cause? Will the process be different if the organization does not have union representation? If so how? Your response should be at least 300 words in length.

CLASSMATE 1

Discussion 7

Topic: Why must a leader be an expert in dealing with politics?

Leaders should be experts because governmental decisions impact individual and organizational agendas. For example, I work in the field of behavioral and mental health. Russel et al. (2016) explained that mental health counselors and social workers are core members of interdisciplinary team. More specifically, along with psychologist, each member of the interdisciplinary team collaborates for the greater good of servicing the client. However, one of the political culture issues behavioral healthcare professionals face, in many states, is the act of being selected second to social workers. Many clinicians and therapists can attest to countlessly having to advocate for their profession. Mental health counseling and social work share some similarities, but there are many differences as well. Mental health counselors are theoretically and clinically trained to assist individuals with mental health concerns. Social workers can counsel clients, but they’re more rooted in case management services. Those services are, predominantly, deal with the client’s current concerns. Whereas, mental health counselors help clients explore previous experiences and instances that may contribute to current concerns. Therefore, social workers are chosen because their services are not as time consuming as mental health counselors. This act is not in the best interest of the client, because many mental health concerns are not a quick fix. This pressing issue is a burden as mental illness is not receiving the appropriate acknowledgment, policy attention, or funding as it should (Tomlinson & Lund, 2012).

The aforementioned holds true to my state. Of course, many of my clients can benefit from the services that are provided by social workers. However, in my state, they address the “here and now”. The unfortunate thing is that the client’s present concerns stems from past experiences. Therefore, more time is needed to address those concerns. In the eyes of most governmental officials, more time means more money. As a result, many individuals who cannot afford the treatment they need are forced to receive whatever government officials deem necessary. Hence, the reason leaders should be knowledgeable in the area of politics. Governmental decisions can impact their organization. 

Russell, H. F., Richardson, E. J., Bombardier, C. H., Dixon, T. M., Huston, T. A., Rose, J., Ullrich, P. M. (2016). Professional standards of practice for psychologists, social workers, and counselors in SCI rehabilitation. The journal of spinal cord medicine, 39(2), 127–145. doi:10.1080/10790268.2015.1119966

Tomlinson M., & Lund, C. (2012). Why Does Mental Health Not Get the Attention It Deserves? An Application of the Shiffman and Smith Framework. PLoS Med 9(2): e1001178. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001178

CLASSMATE 2 

Having a leadership role is a major responsibility. Leaders want to ensure that they are well capable of being versatile. Having the ability to be flexible and balanced can assist leaders with being able to function and lead in any situation. It is vital for employees to feel secure in their leadership. One of the character traits needed to lead is critical thinking. Critical thinking skills can assist leaders in being able to make effective decisions. The ability to make effective decisions is imperative as conflict may arise within the organization. Leaders want to ensure that when making decisions within the organization, they are not just basing it on their personal agenda, but rather basing it on the benefit of the organization. It is imperative for leaders to avoid letting their political views or politics get in the way of effective leadership.

Brierton (2016) defined politics as the use of power to influence decision-making by implementing policies and laws in order to control resources. I believe it is important for leaders to be an expert in politics so he or she can know the ends and outs of politics. However, I do feel that just because you know politics does not mean you have to engage in that behavior. Being an expert of politics in leadership also grants the leader power to influence others. Leaders want to ensure that they are able to lead others and influence them, however, in the right direction. Knowing how to make moves as a leader would be an important factor. As I previously mentioned in the above paragraph, making decisions that would benefit the organization. This would include implementing policies and procedures that align with the organization’s vision and mission, for the benefit of the organization. It is important for leaders to be well rounded, dependable, an innovator, and an effective decision-maker. Operating out of a spirit of political power can be a downfall within an organization, depending on the situation, and how it was resolved.

Bolman, L.G. & Deal, T.E. (2017). Reframing Organizations, (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

Brierton, J. T. (2016). Ethics and politics in school leadership : finding common ground. Rowman & Littlefield.

I’m paying a good price with a generous due date. Please provide a quality paper with the following guidelines:

1. Write your response as a future article for a local news page (for either a newspaper or as an article on a website).

2. Discuss what is meant by competitive advantage. 

3. Refer to examples of ways organizations create competitive advantage. 

4. Identify a specific real-life organization’s competitive advantage and determine what role HR plays in that process.

Four (4) page news article that’s relative to human resource management. Include tables, graphics, and/or other visuals.

Including a cover page, list of references, strong introduction and conclusion.

After the needs assessment has been completed, the next element of the strategic plan involves developing the strategic issues. Key tasks associated with the strategic issues include conducting a gap analysis, performing an environmental scan, and developing stakeholder surveys. The actions are performed so that you can conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, and THREATS. A SWOT analysis is used to help an agency, organization, or community better understand the business and environment in which it operates. The goal of developing strategic issues is to list or map out all of the strengths and weaknesses, and then to do the same for all of the opportunities and threats. This helps the organization to identify a strategy for planning. Opportunities that match the strengths are things that should be pursued. Threats that particularly align with weaknesses should be especially avoided when developing a strategic plan.
For this Assignment, you complete a SWOT analysis for your Capstone Project agency, organization, or community.

To prepare:

• Review Final Project: Developing a Strategic Plan –S.W.O.T Analysis media in the Weekly Resources.
• Consider the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges related to your Capstone Project agency, organization, or community.
• Think about the environmental factors you might review in preparation for addressing the strategic issues component for your Capstone Project. The environmental factors may include: political, economic, demographic, regulatory, philanthropic, donor trends, and other organizations providing similar services.

By Day 7

The Assignment (4–6 pages):

1. Conduct a SWOT analysis. This analysis focuses on assessing the present state or condition of the organization and determining where the organization would like to be. The difference between the two represents the gap, or the difference between where the organization is currently and where the organization would like to be. This gap could provide direction for the major focus of the strategic plan.
2. Describe plans for conducting an environmental scan. The environmental scan is a process in which stakeholders gather and interpret relevant data on an agency, organization, or community to identify external opportunities and threats.
   1. Identify and describe internal conditions that might impact the implementation of the strategic plan.
   2. Address how you would minimize the impact of those conditions.
   3. Identify and describe external conditions or competitors that might impact the implementation of the strategic plan.
      1. Address how you would minimize the impact of those conditions.
      2. Consider how you might plan to work with competitors to meet the needs of your targeted agency, organization, or community.
3. Identify and describe at least three strengths of the agency, organization, or community.
   1. State why each item on the list is a strength.
   2. State how you plan to utilize each strength to positively the impact the development or implementation of the strategic plan.
4. Identify and describe at least three weaknesses of the agency, organization, or community.
   1. State what causes each item on the list to be a weakness.
   2. State how you plan to minimize the impact of the weakness.
5. Identify and describe at least three threats to the agency, organization, or community.
   1. State what causes each item on the list to be a threat.
   2. State how you plan to minimize the impact of the threat.
6. Identify and describe at least three opportunities for improvement for the agency, organization, or community.
   1. State what causes each item on the list to be an opportunity for improvement.
   2. State how you plan to incorporate the opportunity in the implementation of the strategic plan.