1. Research a business magazine (BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Fortune, or Forbes) or newspaper (The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times), and identify a significant business decision made by a major company.

Then answer the following questions:

a. What business and/or economic factors prompted the decision?
b. Did the managers involved satisfice or optimize?
c. What was their risk approach to the decision they made?
d. In your assessment, how creative was their decision?

2. Using the Internet, select the mission statement of an organization of your choice, and identify the following components of the statement:

a. Customer and/or market
b. Product and/or service
c. Geographic domain
d. Concern for survival
e. Concern for public image

3. Visit the Web site of the HRM Guide at www.hrmguide.net Answer the following questions:

a. What is the HRM Guide?

b. Select and summarize an article on work life balance under the "Employee Relations" HR topic.

c. The HRM Guide is a network of HRM and other Web sites. Identify two other Web sites to which the HRM Guide can refer you.

4. Locate the Web site of Corporate Social Responsibility newswire (CSRWire). What does CSRWire do? List four CSRWire members, and explain the services they receive from CSRWire. Find the CSRWire events page, and identify the next scheduled event. Briefly summarize the location and planned agenda for the event.