Overview The final project for this course is the creation of a decision-making and principles of management paper. As you continue on your path to earn a degree in business administration, you will deepen your understanding of how effective management is a crucial aspect of overall business success, especially in today’s complex business world. As business and society continue to evolve, there will continue to be a demand for managers who are able to organize their resources and strategically implement the functions of management to achieve the goals of an organization. The final paper for the course is divided into two parts: Final Project One and Final Project Two. Both parts of the assessment will focus on decision making and the fundamental principles of management. In Final Project One, with the help of your instructor, you will select a successful company from the list provided. You will analyze the company’s best practices and effective implementation of the fundamental principles of management. In Final Project Two, with the help of your instructor, you will select a struggling company from the list provided in the Final Project Two Document. You will analyze the company’s ineffective implementation of the fundamental principles of management. Once you analyze the struggling company, your task will be to make recommendations for a management improvement plan explaining how the company’s management team can improve in areas such as decision making, employee performance, and sustainability. Final Project One Guidelines for Submission: Final Project One must be three to four pages in length (plus a cover page and references) with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and APA formatting. Include at least two references cited in APA format. In Final Project One, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes: • Analyze how an organization’s goals influence organizational planning that informs strategic decision making • Analyze the functions of management and ethical principles for executing effective decision making in organizations • Apply management techniques that ensure the continuous improvement of personnel and business processes to measure organizational performance • Apply communication techniques aimed at increasing employee performance, thus achieving organizational goals and objectives • Illustrate the important connection between management and organizational culture Prompt Your employer recently conducted an employee survey and the greatest area of concern was related to management. The survey revealed that many employees are not satisfied with management’s performance, and the employees feel like the company’s poor performance is directly related to a lack of effective management. The general manager has learned that you are currently pursuing a business degree and would like you to champion a team to help improve management’s effectiveness. The general manager would first like to understand some best management practices from successful companies. For the first part of the final project, you will identify a successful company. You must select a company from the list of suggested companies below. Resources related specifically to the successful companies listed are provided. SAS • SAS.com • SAS: A New No. 1 Best Employer • How SAS Became the World’s Best Place to Work • An Interview With the Godfather of Data Analytics, SAS’s Jim Goodnight Google • Google.com • How Google Motivates Their Employees With Rewards and Perks • Lessons From Google’s Management Style • Google’s Management Style Grows Up • Google’s Greatest Innovation May Be Its Management Practice Zappos • Zappos.com • No Managers Required: How Zappos Ditched the Old Corporate Structure for Something New • Zappos: A Workplace Where No One And Everyone Is The Boss • Zappos Company Culture (5:41) Southwest Airlines • SouthwestAirlines.com • Southwest Airlines Opens for Business - Customers • Effective Management at Southwest Airlines • Southwest Airlines: Strategy Genius or Common Sense? (8:32) Apple • Apple.com • Apple Management Lessons Every Company Should Steal • 8 Management Lessons I Learned Working at Apple • Steve Jobs Talks About Managing People (2:26) Once you have selected a successful company, you will then analyze its application of the fundamental principles of management. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: I. Introduction. Provide a brief overview of the successful company that you have chosen to benchmark for management best practices. Consider including specific examples relating to the fundamental principles of management and the company’s mission and vision statement. II. Profile of a Successful Company a. Explain how the company has communicated its mission and vision within the organization. In other words, explain how the company demonstrates the importance of the mission and vision to employees and other stakeholders. b. Identify the role management played in helping this company execute its strategic management plan. Justify your response. You could consider including a specific example of a time when this management plan led the company to success. c. Describe how management has helped to positively influence the organizational culture within this company. You could consider using some specific examples, actions, or strategies that show how management has positively influenced organizational culture. d. Explain management’s pivotal role in the decision-making process within this company. Be sure to include specific decisions made by management based on principles of ethics. You could discuss specific decision-making models used by the company that may have helped the company be successful. e. Evaluate how the use of the functions of management within this company has adhered to the principles of ethics. You could consider how using the functions of management while adhering to the principles of ethics may have impacted the employees of the company. f. Explain how this company strategically uses human resources to develop its personnel. You could consider how this use of human resources has enhanced the company’s business processes. III. Conclusion a. Summarize how the company utilizes the fundamental principles of management to ensure optimal performance. You could consider the actions taken by this company if optimal performance is not met. b. Analyze the decision-making strategies of the company for how they consider all the parts of the company as an interrelated system. You could consider how the decision-making strategies of the company align with a systems thinking approach. Final Project Two Guidelines for Submission: Final Project Two must be three to four pages in length (plus a cover page and references) with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and APA formatting. Include at least two references cited in APA format. In Final Project Two, with the help of your instructor, you will select a struggling company from the list of real-life historical examples provided below. You will analyze the company’s ineffective implementation of the fundamental principles of management. Once you analyze the struggling company, your task will be to make recommendations for a management improvement plan explaining how the company’s management team can improve in areas such as decision making, employee performance, and sustainability. In Final Project Two, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes: • Analyze how an organization’s goals influence organizational planning that informs strategic decision making • Analyze the functions of management and ethical principles for executing effective decision making in organizations • Apply management techniques that ensure the continuous improvement of personnel and business processes to measure organizational performance • Apply communication techniques aimed at increasing employee performance, thus achieving organizational goals and objectives • Illustrate the important connection between management and organizational culture Prompt The general manager has reviewed your analysis of a successful company and was impressed with your work. As a result, you have been asked to provide recommendations for a management improvement plan for a struggling company. For the second part of the final project, you will focus on a struggling company and make your recommendations in a management improvement plan. Your recommendations will show how management performance, employee perception, and organizational success intersect. You must select a company from this list of suggested companies. Resources related specifically to the struggling companies listed are provided. Toyota (specific to recalls over the last decade) • Toyota.com • The Toyota Recall • What Really Happened to Toyota? • Can Toyota Recover Its Reputation for Quality? WorldCom • Ex-WorldCom CEO Ebbers guilty • WorldCom: The Accounting Scandal Enron • Enron Case Study • Enron Scandal (4:48) Motorola • What Happened to Motorola • 10 Reasons Why Motorola Failed Eastman Kodak • Kodak Moments Just a Memory as Company Exits Bankruptcy • Kodak CEO Talks Company’s Future • Eastman Kodak Files for Bankruptcy Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: I. Profile of a Struggling Company a. Assess how the management planning practices interfere with or prohibit the organization’s ability to optimally function. You could consider using the fundamental principles of management in your explanation. b. Describe how the employees’ perception and organizational culture have been impacted by management’s performance. You could consider the connections between management and its impact on culture. c. Explain how communication has played a part in management’s inability to increase employee performance. You could consider the connections to specific communication barriers that exist within the organization. II. Management Plan Recommendations: For this section of the summative assessment, you will make recommendations for the management improvement plan. a. Describe how implementing the fundamental principles of management will help to improve the management process within your company. You could consider the factors that interfere with or prohibit effective management. b. Identify how aspects of the fundamental principles of management will be implemented and communicated to all personnel within the company. You could consider thinking about this from a training standpoint. c. Describe how the application of the fundamental principles of management will lead to increased employee performance. You could consider what needs to improve the most to help increase employee performance. d. Explain how applying ethical principles to the fundamental principles of management would be sustained and monitored by the company. You could consider using the rational decision-making model to show how this process can help with ensuring long-term success. III. Conclusion: For this section of the summative assessment, you will provide a summary of your recommended changes to the management improvement plan using examples revolving around the fundamental principles of management. a. Summarize how these management changes, based on the fundamental principles of management, will help to ensure organizational success. Be sure to provide examples of how these changes will have the most direct impact.