Essay Topic #1: Employee Engagement and Empowerment
Forbes Magazine (June, 2012) contained an article defining employee engagement as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.” Written by Kevin Kruze who wrote the book, “Employee Engagement 2.0” the “business case” for engagement efforts can be summarized as, “Engaged Employees lead to higher service, quality, and productivity, which leads to…higher customer satisfaction, which leads to…increased sales (repeat business and referrals), which leads to…higher levels of profit, which leads to…higher shareholder returns (i.e., stock price).”
Your Questions:
1. Utilizing the information in your text as well as your own research, and under the premise that, in the science of management, “there is nothing new under the sun”, it does appear that we have been here before. List and describe the work of three (3) Original Theorists from your text whom you feel have plowed this ground before, whose efforts have laid the foundation for the concept of “employee engagement” and whose work is being built upon yet today. Provide a clear rationale for your choices.
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2. Describe the “essential elements” of an “employee engagement” effort. Specifically describe how to get there and what programs, policies and managerial expectations you would assure are in place to create an “emotional commitment to the organization and its goals.” You are welcome to research and cite other successful companies and programs as a way of assuring the success of your own.
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3. If you were asked to suggest the single most effective and positive managerial attribute (e.g., transparency, empowerment, development & etc.) necessary to facilitate employee engagement, what would you suggest? Explain and justify your choice.
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Essay Topic #2: Management Principles
In Chapter 10 of your text, you read that Henri Fayol was one of the initial practitioners to advance a formal statement of management principles. Fayol used his experiences and observations as an executive to identify the elements or functions that compose a manager’s job. The post–World War II economic expansion created a renewed interest in Fayol’s ideas about managing and spawned numerous “principles and process” university textbooks for teaching management science.

Your Questions:

1. Fayol believed that “The responsibility of general management is to conduct the enterprise toward its objective by making optimum use of available resources. It is the executive authority, it draws up the plan of action, selects personnel, determines performance, ensures and controls the execution of all activities.” As you reflect on Fayol’s functions as described here, what is still relevant today? What “elements or functions”, based on your own knowledge and research of management science, is missing and should be included for today’s senior managers?
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2. Rewrite Fayol’s above guidance for a modern manager today by completing this sentence, “The responsibility of general management is…”. Consider the guidance of Peter Drucker, Henry Mintzberg, Harold Koontz and others to create a “fresh take” on Fayol’s definition.
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3. You have been tasked to create a “self-directed work team” based on the Toyota Way as described by Taiichi Ohno. Describe your plan, to include intermediate milestones, to achieve this.
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FINAL QUESTION
The nature of jobs has been changing for centuries and this has often created hostility and opposition. For example, the Luddites sought to destroy textile machines believed to be depriving them of their livelihood. In the current political debate regarding a $15.00 minimum wage, what do you believe will be the anticipated impact of robots, drones, and other automated devices on the workforce?
• Should these innovations be resisted?
• If not, how then to accommodate these changes?
• What is the responsibility of business regarding these accommodations?
• What are the lessons from history for us?

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Text : Wren, D. Bedeian, A. (2018). The Evolution of Management Thought. Seventh Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ.