Demonstrate their ability to think ethically about professional dilemmas that arise in the context of human service practice.

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Ethical Dilemma

The purpose of this assignment is for students to demonstrate their ability to think ethically about professional dilemmas that arise in the context of human service practice. Ethical decision-making is a practice reality. Human service ethics clarify the ethical aspects of professional practice and help practitioners recognize the morally correct way to practice and serve as a guideline for effective decision-making. Students will be given or can choose an ethical case study and will be expected to use an ethical decision-making model in a reflective writing assignment with at least two additional peer-reviewed sources incorporated into the paper. These sources should help demonstrate and support the ethical process you are going through in this paper. More details will be presented in class. You will be provided a case study and an ethical decision-making model to apply for this assignment.

Analyze the managerial succession market approach that Microsoft utilized in selecting Satya Nadella as their CEO. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach and provide reasons why companies may opt for this type of succession planning. Utilize information from Section 12-3 of the textbook to support your answer.

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Case Studies

Purpose: Understand how strategic leaders can transform organizations and regain a competitive advantage.

Discussion questions:

  1. Analyze the managerial succession market approach that Microsoft utilized in selecting Satya Nadella as their CEO. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach and provide reasons why companies may opt for this type of succession planning. Utilize information from Section 12-3 of the textbook to support your answer. (10 Points)
  2. Examine and describe Satya Nadella’s assessment of the issues facing Microsoft when he became CEO. Discuss three strategic steps that Nadella took to address these challenges and transform the company’s culture, as outlined in the case study. (5 Points)
  3. Explain how Satya Nadella’s background and prior experiences influenced his leadership style at Microsoft. Analyze the unique characteristics of Nadella’s strategic leadership approach referencing concepts from concepts discussed in class and the chapter. (5 Points)
  4. Bonus Question: Explain two concrete ways in which you plan to adopt and embody a growth mindset after completing your studies at GSU. Define what a growth mindset means to you and provide specific examples of how you plan to implement this philosophy in your personal and professional life. (3 Bonus Points)

 

 

 

 

 

Pick one of the insight pillars above and discuss how it supports the overall business strategy. Consider your current or previous workplace, and address how the insight may apply. What can the business do now to use data to address the insight you have selected?

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Data Analytics

Examined several different types of data insights that occur in big data analytics:

  • Offer novel knowledge
  • Provide causation relationships
  • Add a competitive edge
  • Yield quantifiable results
  • Demand execution

Pick one of the insight pillars above and discuss how it supports the overall business strategy. Consider your current or previous workplace, and address how the insight may apply. What can the business do now to use data to address the insight you have selected?

 

Complete a literature review on a research topic of your choice relevant to early childhood or childhood or young people.

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Literature review

Complete a literature review on a research topic of your choice relevant to early childhood or childhood or young people.

Critically examine a current challenge of academic research – (Academic and Journals Publishing Module).

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Critically examine a current challenge of academic research – (Academic and Journals Publishing Module).

Note: You are expected to demonstrate engagement with more than one viewpoint. Consider the broader themes discussed throughout the module as well as the needs of publishers, researchers, and other stakeholders. You may wish to appraise existing models or propose new approaches.

Your work should contain the following:

An introduction, setting the context of your approach to the question
Critical appraisal of the arguments
Evidence of further research and analysis of additional relevant sources
A conclusion

We consider three main elements when marking your work:

1) Argument and Analysis

2) Knowledge and Research

3) Writing and Presentation.

Your written assignments must address all three areas to be successful and your overall mark takes all three areas into consideration. In the feedback that you receive on your written work, your tutor will inform you of how you have performed in each of these three areas. Your tutor will also offer suggestions for how you can improve your work in future.

Criteria

Requirements

Weighting

Argument and Analysis:
Your work should contain a coherent and accurate main argument that is built around strong ideas and high-quality thinking. Your work should effectively address the needs and characteristics of the identified audience. Ensuring the information, arguments or ideas are logically and purposefully organised, and consistently maintained throughout the article.
30%

Knowledge and Research:
Your work should demonstrate wide and critical reading of secondary sources. Your work should show excellent and thorough comprehension of any texts that you discuss. It should also engage with academic literature in a sophisticated way and make use of relevant historical, intellectual, or literary contexts. Consider the scope and detail of the information you give: information, arguments, or ideas are fully developed and expanded upon.
40%

Writing and Presentation:
Your work should be well structured and organised and should be written in a clear and persuasive manner. You should consistently use good language choices to enhance the text: spelling, syntax, grammar, overall structure of your writing, paragraphing. Your referencing, and bibliography, should accurately and consistently follow scholarly conventions, as should your formatting and presentation. Your essay should also avoid mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
30%

Of the problems that can occur in these systems, which one concerns you the most? Do you have previous experience or specific interests (like performance or breeding) that make this especially concerning for you?

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Unit 7 DB: Urinary Disease

You have learned about the range of problems that can arise in the reproductive and urinary systems.

Of the problems that can occur in these systems, which one concerns you the most? Do you have previous experience or specific interests (like performance or breeding) that make this especially concerning for you?

Explain how your personal experience affects your concern, and identify the problems that matter the most to you.

 

Would you classify Richard Branson as a manager or a leader? What qualities distinguish him as one or the other? As mentioned earlier in this chapter, followers are part of the leadership process. Describe the relationship between Branson and his followers.

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Leadership development

  1. Would you classify Richard Branson as a manager or a leader? What qualities distinguish him as one or the other?
  2. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, followers are part of the leadership process. Describe the relationship between Branson and his followers.
  3. Identify the myths of leadership development that Richard Branson’s success helps to disprove

 

What additional guidance and support could the Department have provided to this grantee? What internal controls need to be strengthened at the CSD?

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Case Study: Century Community Learning Center Assignment Instructions

Overview

As future grant managers you will find yourself in various ethical situations. Case studies can help provide you the opportunities to think though difficult ethical situations and learn from the mistakes of others. A grant proposal, if approved, becomes a contract between the funding agencies and organization receiving funds. When any deviation from the agreement occurs quick communication should take place between the funding agency and the grant manager.

Instructions

Background: A County School District (CSD) was awarded $224,875 in 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) grant funding for both fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The 21st CCLC Program was created as the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to after-school programs. The program was established to provide a wide range of high-quality out-of-school services specifically focused on helping students meet state and local academic achievement standards in core academic subjects. Services are targeted to low-income students attending low-performing schools, and include both academic enrichment and additional services that reinforce and complement the regular school day. Programs also bolster communities by offering opportunities for literacy and related educational development to families of active program participants. By law, 21st CCLCs provide services only during non-school hours or periods when school is not in session. Programs funded with 21st CCLC grants must meet the following minimum performance standards: serve proposed numbers of targeted student participants; meet proposed levels of program operation; and provide the requisite hours of operation. Programs must demonstrate sufficient progress toward accomplishing program objectives by submitting semi-annual data. Funding levels are based largely upon proposed student attendance levels and hours of operation. Federal guidelines stipulate that failure to perform at operational levels as proposed in the approved grant application may result in reduced levels of funds.

Findings: Records obtained from the 21st CCLC program in the CSD indicate that the average number of students in attendance for the month of May 2010 was only 24.35, a figure substantially less than the proposed daily level of 100 students. Summer attendance levels forecasted in the contract indicated that an average of 90 students would be served daily, to include 60 students with disabilities. However, the average attendance for the month of June 2010 was only 39.92 students. End of year self-report data submitted to the Department indicated an average daily attendance of 12 during 2009-10. According to the program management, the CSD program started late during the first year and reported improved attendance levels during the summer of 2009 (53 students per day). Consequently, the Department decided not to reduce funding for the second year. However, the Department appropriately reduced the maximum award for the third year because the CSD fell short of meeting the “80% threshold rule for daily attendance in 2009-10” and the CSD County dissolved the program.

In terms of program operation, the CSD did not fully comply with the legal and regulatory requirements that stipulated that 21st CCLC programs must provide opportunities “to help student achievement … meet state and local student achievement standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and mathematics.” The 21st CCLC grant requires that providers must offer remedial education and academic enrichment, to include a strong reading, mathematics, and science component delivered by certified teachers. During the months of November 2009 and March 2010, an examination of the CSD’s lesson plans revealed that an insufficient amount of time was spent teaching core competencies. A disproportionate amount of time was devoted to the instruction of art, music, recreation, and entrepreneurial education in the after-school program. Although a computer lab was available to students in the after-school program, the extent to which students were utilizing the reading and math software to further remediate in core content areas was unclear.

Additionally, the grant program required that after-school programs must afford students 12 full hours of impact programming per week. It is apparent that only 1 to 2 hours per day of programming was offered based on the CSD data. The State OIG recommended that consideration be given to providing funds to higher risk sub-recipients on a reimbursement basis only. More stringent reporting requirements would help detect problems sooner.

Our focus in this course has been on foundation grants but grant management requirements of the federal government will play a role in your management experience.  This case study is a true event taken from the Office of Inspector General public audit reports. Even the best grant manager will make mistakes that have to be addressed during the annual audit. When the Inspector General conducts an audit it means that something has gone wrong beyond the average management mistake. As Christians, we are called to be good stewards of the resources we are given. In a 2 page paper address the questions below. Based on what you have learned in this course how could this situation have been avoided?

 

Questions:

  1. What additional guidance and support could the Department have provided to this grantee?
  2. What internal controls need to be strengthened at the CSD?
  3. What could the CSD have done about their low student attendance?
  4. What documentation could have been used to demonstrate their core content offerings?
  5. How could this have been avoided?

 

Reference

OIG Audit Reports (2020).  Century community learning center report. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/rpauditinvestmainpage.html

Why is the commingling of grant funds not allowable? What internal controls are not in place for the WFM program? How could the Council have prevented paying for costs that were unauthorized?

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Case Study: Wildland Fire Management Assignment Instructions

Overview

As future grant managers you will find yourself in various ethical situations. Case studies can help provide you the opportunities to think though difficult ethical situations and learn from the mistakes of others. A grant proposal, if approved, becomes a contract between the funding agencies and organization receiving funds. When any deviation from the agreement occurs, quick communication should take place between the funding agency and the grant manager.

Instructions

Background: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided the Department of Agriculture with $28 billion in funding, $1.15 billion of which was allotted to the Forest Service (FS) to implement projects that accomplish its mission of sustaining the nation’s forests and grasslands, creating jobs, and promoting U. economic recovery. FS’ Wildland Fire Management (WFM) program was allocated $200 million in grant funding to implement activities on State, county, and private lands. The funding was used to operate projects with State, local, and Tribal governments, and non-profit organizations that submit grant proposals to FS. FS approved 152 WFM projects on non-Federal lands from May through September 2009, including a project to perform hazardous fuels treatments on non-Federal lands. FS awarded a $3.6 million Recovery Act grant to The Council to implement this project.

Findings: The Council did not properly account for its FS Recovery Act grant funds, but, instead, comingled $2.7 million of the $3.6 million in FS Recovery Act grant funds it received with funds it received from other sources. As a result, the Council may have used $2.7 million of the FS Recovery Act grant funds to pay for non-Recovery Act costs during the 2-year period we reviewed. Commingled costs cannot be charged to Federal grants because it reduces or eliminates a grant recipient’s ability to identify which portion of the commingled  costs  relate  to authorized grant work and which do not. It also results in unallowable costs being charged to FS grants. For example, the Council received $800,188 from its $3.6 million FS Recovery Act grant in January 2011. Under 0MB rules, the Council was required to use that money solely to pay for authorized expenses incurred while performing Recovery Act grant work.  However, the Council only used $95,578 of the $800,188 it received in January 2011 to reimburse legitimate grant expenses and deposited the remaining $705,611 into an account that commingled funds from both the Recovery Act grant and other Federal grants. Over a 2-year period, the Council deposited $2.7 million of the FS Recovery Act grant funds it received into the commingled account. The Council did not identify the source of the funds once they were deposited into the account; it simply lumped all the funds together. The Council then used the money in the account to pay various expenses, such as rent, utilities, and other non-FS grant costs, even though none of the costs were authorized by the FS Recovery Act grant. We further determined that the Council’s commingling activities were exacerbated by the fact that it routinely, and inappropriately, requested FS Recovery Act grant “reimbursements” for expenses it had not yet paid. The Council was subject to the requirements of 0MB Circular A-133, which specified that grant recipients can only be reimbursed for costs they have already paid. On every reimbursement request we reviewed, the Council certified that it had already paid the expenses for which it was claiming reimbursement when, in fact, it had not. Upon receiving these “reimbursements,” rather than immediately utilizing the funds to pay for authorized Recovery Act grant expenses, the Council’s executive director deposited the Recovery Act grant funds into the commingled account and used them to pay unauthorized expenses associated with other, non-FS grants.

The OIG recommended that FS:

  • Recover from the Fire Safe Council the $2.7 million in Recovery Act grant funds that were unsupported.
  • Withhold from the Fire Safe Council any future fund reimbursements until the internal controls and grant administration policies and procedures to properly account for all grant funds in accordance with OMB and grant requirements.
  • Obtain documentations from the Fire Safe Council showing that the grant funds were adequately accounted for and used for their intended purpose; and,
  • In those instances where FS determine the charges to the remaining grant were not adequately supported, disallow the costs and recover any reimbursements already made to the Fire Safe Council.

 Our focus in this course has been on foundation grants but grant management requirements of the federal government will play a role in your management experience.  This case study is a true event taken from the Office of Inspector General public audit reports. Even the best grant manager will make mistakes that have to be addressed during the annual audit. When the Inspector General conducts an audit, it means that something has gone wrong beyond the average management mistake. As Christians, we are called to be good stewards of the resources we are given. In a 2-page paper address the questions below. Based on what you have learned in this course, how could this situation have been avoided?

 

Questions:

  1. Why is the commingling of grant funds not allowable?
  2. What internal controls are not in place for the WFM program?
  3. How could the Council have prevented paying for costs that were unauthorized?
  4. How could this situation have been avoided?

 

 

 

Reference

 

OIG Audit Reports (2020). Wildland fire management report.  https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/rpauditinvestmainpage.html

 

 

 

 

 

You have explained in a sheet named ‘Discussion’ describing what data is missing that would help make a better decision. What is the decision you could make from the data set if you could magically snap your fingers and have the data. What type of statistical test might you run to complete the analysis with the new data.

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Create Dataset with at least 30 observations

  1. Create your own dataset that includes at least 30 observations for four different variables, i.e. minimum 30 rows, 4 columns
  2. You have created a copy of the raw data and labeled the sheet ‘Raw Data’
  3. You have renamed the sheet you are working with ‘Analysis.’ The first step is to add at least one column and transform an existing variable (e.g., from text to a quantitative variable). You can choose any variable you want to transform. Hint: you should most likely be using an if() function to complete this step.
  4. You have provided descriptive (summary) statistics for each variable in a new sheet named ‘Descriptive Stats’ – refer back to the first weeks of class to see what is meant by descriptive statistics. Use your own judgment on how to best show the data.
  5. You have described the distribution of at least one variable in a sheet named ‘Distribution’ – you should use a histogram and its chart to show the distribution of the variable. In cell A1, explain why you think the variable has its distribution. Are there any outliers? How do you know?
  6. You have completed a t-test on comparing two variables in a sheet named ‘t-test’. In a cell of your choice, explain what the t-test tells you in plain English. The description should be at least 10 sentences. You need to describe a reason or multiple reasons why that test would make sense. It is ok to make some assumptions and be creative – in other words, tell a story about the data.
  7. You have completed either a decision making (input/output) model based on the data (using solver, expected value, or a custom model similar to what we performed in class) OR a regression and explained the regression in a sheet named ‘regression.’ In a cell of your choice, explain the input/output model or what the regression tells you in plain English. Again, you need to describe why you chose this methodology to look at the data. It is ok to make some assumptions and be creative – in other words, tell a story about the data.
  8. You have explained in a sheet named ‘Discussion’ describing what data is missing that would help make a better decision. What is the decision you could make from the data set if you could magically snap your fingers and have the data. What type of statistical test might you run to complete the analysis with the new data.