Assignment 1

You have just been promoted from front-line supervisor to be one of the firm's senior managers. During your business education, you learned that the primary role of a manager is to make good decisions. As a supervisor, you had frequently been making routine decisions, but you realize that decision making for the overall company can and will have far greater impact on the company and its employees.

Your boss, the chief executive officer (CEO), realizes that you do not have much practice in this higher level, decision-making process and has asked you to write a memo describing your understanding of how to make important decisions.

Your memo should address the following questions:

• Describe at least 3 criteria that would determine whether the manager is making good decisions. What should be done to better assure that you are making a good decision?

• In the realm of decision making, what are assumptions? Rather than use a dictionary definition, cite several specific assumptions that would go with any real-life decision you have made or have seen made at a company at which you have worked.

• Given the importance of proper assumptions, your boss asked you to assess the accuracy of certain business assumptions and what could you do to test or confirm the credibility of them. The following were major assumptions for each firm:

o An automobile manufacturer's assumption that the demand for SUVs would continue because gas prices would continue to rise
o An airline's assumption that there was a need for an airline that provided no added amenities

Please submit your assignment.

Assignment 2

Using your current work organization (or an organization of interest) and a second organization in the same industry as the subject matter, research the elements of business, compare and contrast the two selected organizations, and prepare an APA formatted paper that:

• Analyzes the basic legal, social, and economic environment in which the organizations operate
• Analyzes the managerial, operational, and financial issues impacting the organizations including:

o Company Culture and Performance
o Promotion Policies
o Strategic Decisions Making
o Decision-Making Style
o Management Style
o Leadership Style
o Communication Style
o Use of SWOT Tool
o Operations Strategy Framework

• Assesses how the overall management teams perform in terms of the four functions of management.

• Identifies and explains the strong points of the managers.

• Identifies and explains areas in which improvements are needed.

Be sure to use a minimum of 5 external sources to support your analysis.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

• Title page: Remember the running head and title in all capital letters.

• Abstract: This is a summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third-person voice.

• Body: The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page, and it must be double-spaced between paragraphs. The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 3-4 pages. In-text academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.

• Reference page: References that align with your in-text academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper- and lower-case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the reference page is not a bibliography, but it is a further listing of the abbreviated in-text citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-text citation.