Week 5 Discussion

Discussion Topic Due April 23 at 11:59 PM

Before beginning work on this week’s discussion forum, please review the link 

Doing Discussion Questions Right

, the expanded grading rubric for the forum, and any specific instructions for this week’s topic.

For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

Respond to the following questions using the lessons and vocabulary found in the readings.

You were recently appointed as a new manager.  You face a number of issues in your new position.  Please address one of the following:

• The previous manager used a transactional leadership approach, which has been relatively ineffective. Evaluate one leadership style and describe which you would take.
• An experienced executive assistant discovered that she made the same amount of money as a newly hired janitor.  Consider the role the human resources department plays in driving organization performance.  What HR strategies would you employ to address this?
• To keep people motivated in a tough economic environment, the company has shifted from annual to semiannual bonuses.  Do you think offering semiannual bonuses is a good way to motivate the kind of behaviors organizations need to survive the economic downturn?  What might be some potential problems associated with this approach?  What other strategies would you use?

Your posting should be 500-600 words in length.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.