MBA-FP6004 ASSESSMENT 4 Strategy Recommendation Writing Preparation

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For this two-part assessment, you will create an Excel spreadsheet of credible sources to use when studying the impact of the Internet and social media on a company of your choice. You will then create a 5–7-page annotated outline of an Internet and social media strategy for the company, based on the sources you identified.

Note: The assessments in this course are sequenced in such a way as to help you build specific skills that you will use throughout your program. Complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

This assessment allows you to show your ability to research and to organize information, as well as to develop the outline of a strategy for application in a business environment.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Examine the use of critical, strategic, and ethical thinking in decision-making.
- Assess the ethical impact of the Internet on a business.
Competency 2: Integrate the Internet, collaboration, and virtual environment strategies into general business management planning and decision-making.
- Assess the current use of the Internet by a company.
- Assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Internet use for business issues.
- Identify existing technology for management's consideration.
Competency 3: Integrate business strategies into general business management planning and decision-making.
- Propose a business strategy recommendation that is well organized, professional, and persuasive.
Competency 4: Analyze relevant global business concerns for the future.
- Assess the use of the Internet in a global environment.
Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.

Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business profession.

Locating the Best Sources

In today's marketplace, the ability to support operational and strategic decisions with solid information is a critical skill. Finding information is not difficult, but finding the most useful, high-quality information can be. Locating the best sources requires several subskills, equally important for business and academic work, including the ability to search for appropriate resources, to evaluate the credibility and usefulness of information, and to synthesize information to make evidence-based decisions.

To locate useful information, you need to know what you are looking for and understand the questions you need to ask to get you there. The assessments throughout this course encourage you to build skills in using the library, though the Internet is sometimes a better source for answering certain questions. For that reason, you should use both the Capella library and the Internet for your asse

Creating an Annotated Outline

While each person has his or her own process for writing, creating an outline can be an important early step in the process in all types of writing, even for seasoned writers. By creating an outline, you draft a plan that helps you organize your thoughts and to see gaps in your thought process. After building an effective outline, you can begin to complete your research and to flesh out your writing. If you experience writer's block, as all writers sometimes do, an outline allows you to skip a difficult section and move on so that you can continue to be productive. An annotated outline is a document that organizes the main sections to be included in your assessment. The annotations are based on thinking and should create enough detail that anyone who reads the outline can follow your thought process.

Thinking About Business and Ethics

Hooker (2011) submits that ethical behavior is rational behavior. A popular approach to studying ethics relates rational behavior with rational self-interest. Hooker (2011) puts forth the proposition that the consideration of others is rational not only because of self-interest but because to do otherwise is "illogical and self-contradictory" (p. 1). His approach is anything but mere theory, as there is a real focus on the practical application.

In business, law and ethics intertwine. Do our laws flow from our communal ethics? Here the modified generalization principle and its four corollaries can be useful. Also significant for our purposes is fiduciary duty, the utilitarian principle that is consistency based, grounding it in the theme of ethics as rational choice as well as virtue ethics. You may also delve deeper into the exploration of ethics and research distributive justice and autonomy. The three key concepts here are utility theory, the Difference Principle of John Rawls, and the autonomy of rational agents.

References

Chaffee, J. (2015). Thinking critically (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Eichenwald, K. (2004, June 27). Crimes of others wrecked Enron, ex-chief says. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/business/27ENRO.final.html?pagewanted=1

Holmes, O. W. (n.d.). Great-Quotes.com. Retrieved from http://www.great-quotes.com/quote/995057

Hooker, J. (2011). Business ethics as rational choice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

Are ethics simply common sense?
Are business ethics and financial success always compatible? Or are they always incompatible?
What ethical questions can you use to make ethical decisions in the future?

Suggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

Capella Multimedia

Click the links provided below to view the following multimedia pieces:

Course Library Guide

A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the MBA-FP6004 – Foundational Skills for Business Leaders Library Guide to help direct your research.

Internet Resources

Access the following resource by clicking the link provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permission for the following link has been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

Internet Center for Management and Business Administration. (2013). Quick MBA: SWOT analysis. Retrieved from http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/

Bookstore Resources

The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. These resources are available from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Chaffee, J. (2015). Thinking critically (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Hooker, J. (2011). Business ethics as rational choice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

In this assessment, submit the following components:

Finding Credible Resources (Excel Spreadsheet).
Annotated Outline.

Part 1: Finding Credible Resources (Excel Spreadsheet)

Gather basic information about your target company. This information will help you complete the assessment questions.

Official corporate name of the company you chose.
Headquarters location.
URL of the company Web site.
Description of the company's primary products or services (or both).
Industry category (or categories) in which this company operates.

Then, complete the following:

Answer the five questions in the list below. Use both the Capella library and Internet search engines to complete this assessment. Do not rely on either one exclusively.
1. What is one way that your chosen company is currently using the Internet or social media?
2. What is one way that some other company in the same industry as your chosen business is already using the Internet or social media?
3. How might the use of the Internet or social media present ethical problems for your chosen company?
4. What technology exists that your company should know about as its management considers Internet use?
5. What is one way that demographics, global presence, or diversity might impact your companies' choices about Internet and social media use?
Create an Excel document to house the information for your assessment. Include a row for each of the five questions. Include a column for each of the following categories of information:
1. Statement of the original question.
2. Analysis of the information needed to answer that question and description of any challenges you had answering the question (2–4 sentences).
3. Answer to the question with an APA formatted in-text citation.
4. Source (or sources) for your answer in full APA citation.
5. Your assessment of the credibility of the information you found (2–4 sentences).
6. Your ranking of the credibility of the source on a scale of 1 to 5, with one being the lowest credibility and 5 being the highest.
7. Your description of the search strategy that you used to find the answer to the question.
Use the Excel AVERAGE function to find the average credibility score of all of your sources.
Write one sentence to describe the general level of credibility of the material you found. If the average score for your sources was 1 to 3, explain the difficulties you had finding credible sources.
Describe how you will handle this problem in your final project.
Submit the assessment in your Excel document. You are being asked to submit this assessment in an Excel format to demonstrate your basic Excel skills, in preparation for future courses

Part 2: Annotated Outline

Next, create an annotated outline that provides a framework, or skeleton, for your strategy recommendation. By building an annotated outline, you will:

Build a structure that shows the content and organization of your assessment and makes the process easier for you to move forward.
Demonstrate that you have conducted research and know how to cite in APA format by including some quotations. Note that you may or may not use these sources and quotes in your actual recommendation; you may find better sources as you work on your strategy recommendation.
Demonstrate your ability to create a well-organized document, suitable for academics or business, that meets established criteria.

To create your outline, complete the following steps:

Develop a complete list of the topics to be addressed in your strategy recommendation:
1. Select a company that you will research and analyze to complete your strategy recommendation.
2. Identify what technology exists that your company should know about as its management considers Internet and social media use.
3. Assess a company's current use of the Internet and social media.
4. Analyze the implications of the Internet and social media for the future of a business, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
5. Identify one way that demographics, global presence, or diversity might impact your companies' choices about Internet and social media use.
6. Evaluate ethical questions raised by a future vision for the impact of the Internet and social media on a business.
7. Propose an evidence-based strategy for a company's future use of the Internet and social media.
8. Support a recommended business strategy with persuasive evidence.
9. Write professionally and in a manner consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Your annotated outline must state the name of your chosen business and must include the following:
1. An introduction.
2. A conclusion.
3. At least four other headings in between (the introduction and conclusion):
  1. Each of the four headings must have at least two subpoints to develop the detail required.
  2. Each of the four headings must incorporate at least one quotation or paraphrase from a source that you might use for support, with an APA in-text citation.
  3. One of your headings or subheadings (in your strategy recommendation) will specifically address the ethical aspects associated with your chosen business.
  4. One of your headings should be Recommendations.
4. A section for References. In that section, list the full APA citation for all the sources you used in the annotated outline.

As you develop the sections for the strategy recommendation, consider what question you want to answer, what information you need to answer it, what you might find interesting as a reader, and what you want to learn as an MBA learner. Be sure to include everything mentioned above. In addition, you may also want to add a section on company background; a SWOT analysis could be useful in this regard. (For more on a SWOT Analysis, see the information from QuickMBA linked in the Resources under Internet Resources.)

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Ensure written communication is credible and free of errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Format resources and citations according to APA (6th edition) style and formatting.
Number of resources: Cite a minimum of five resources.
Length: For Part II, submit 5–7 double-spaced pages, not including title page or reference page, plus the Excel spreadsheet for Part I.
Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.