 Hi, this is Dr. Laura Portales and I'm here to talk with you about the case study for practice exam, number one. And a couple of things, we're gonna be looking at the case study itself and then we'll be looking at some actual questions from the case study and we'll talk about the correct answer and why it is correct. So let's go ahead and get started. The start of this case study focuses on Brown's transmissions and it's a small family owned business and they manufacture commercial truck transmissions. We see that the external environment is impacting the business and while other companies have laid off employees, he has been trying to keep his employees but is very frustrated by their negative attitudes towards the organization. They've actually talked about potential unionizing and just have an overall poor attitude. So it looks like Ralph has quite a few issues with this group of employees. One of the challenges and issues here that you'll read is that he really needs to continue to be competitive in the industry and while people want an increase in wages, he's just not really sure that he can do that. So let's look at the second part of this case study. So despite the motivation issues, Ralph has some other things going on as we learn a little bit later in the case and that is he's expecting competition to come in and impact his business. And also Ralph knows that if he increases labor costs, that also increases his operating costs, which may not make him as competitive in the marketplace. So a lot of challenges here and this is a big challenge that many businesses face, how to balance the needs of employees and the management of employees with the external environment. So at the end, we learn that he knows motivation, attitudes, job satisfaction and all of the elements that you learned about in class can contribute to a positive work environment. Let's take a look specifically at some of the questions related to this case and talk about how we might want to answer them. I want to reiterate that these are actual questions from the case study and the practice exam. It's a good idea to kind of look at the flow of the questions and that will help you do well on the practice exam as well as the final exam. So let's read the question together. Brown's transmissions believes their overseas competition has contributed to their market share decrease causing a layoff of employees. Which decision making model would be more affecting an increasing market share and keeping employees? And the correct answer here is creative and when we look at intuitive model, PLC model and rational model, these rarely wouldn't impact necessarily the market share decrease. So getting creative and finding creative ways to motivate his employees is going to be important here. And we can tie this question specifically to a course learning outcome, which has identified factors that affect motivation and employee motivational theories that increase productivity. Let's take a look at our next question. So we learned in the case study that Ralph has been running this family business and many of his employees have been there many, many years. So that's going kind of the basis of this question. So let's go ahead and read it together. Which is the most likely contributor most hindering an employee from reaching out to Ralph directly to discuss concerns at Brown's transmissions? And we can see our options here and the correct option here is see the organizational hierarchy. So while hierarchies and organizational structures are necessary for businesses to be effective, sometimes that can inhibit communications between employees. So what Ralph may wanna consider doing is restructuring and creating a culture change within his organization so that people feel comfortable going directly to him. The course learning outcome for this question was evaluate frameworks that support managerial decision making and improve organizational efficiencies. Let's take a look at another question. This question is focused on Ralph possibly taking action that can assist with the motivation of his employees. The question reads, suppose Ralph invites all employees to a meeting to discuss the issues at the company. What factor can Ralph use to show employees that he understands the issues that they may face? And we have several good ones here. Communication of course is important. Gratitude is important. Vision is important as a leader. But really in this situation, the key word here is what factor can Ralph use to show employees that he understands. So the word understand cues us into the idea that the correct answer here is empathy. And our course learning outcome is identify factors that affect motivation and employee motivational theories that increase productivity. Let's look at the next question. In this question, we're going back to the competing values framework that you learned about in the unit. The question reads, what type of culture is Brown's transmissions more associated with? And here are options and the correct answer is B, clan culture. And if you remember correctly from this model, this type of culture is more most focused on flexibility, creating a family environment. And they also have a high tendency for there to be changes within the organization, which we read from the case. Other is global competition that he's concerned about. So based on that and based on the fact that he's created this family environment, according to the competing values framework, the correct answer here would be clan culture. Our course learning outcome is analyze the behaviors of individuals and groups and teams and organizations. Let's take a look at the next question. As you may remember from the case, one of the issues is the wages people are receiving, which is one of the reasons why they want to consider unionizing. So the question reads, what can Ralph and Steve present to employees to show that they currently receive market value wages? And the correct answer here is D. So while a pay analysis might be useful, it's not just pay, it's total compensation and total rewards that we want to consider. So that's not just pay, that's things like benefits and paid time off and so forth. So we want to show them the entire compensation package, not just the pay analysis. The code of ethics wouldn't do a whole lot of good to show a receipt of market value wages and the mission statement probably wouldn't be either. So the correct answer here is compensation package. Our learning objective or learning outcome for this particular question is develop strategies for managing people within the organizational culture through times of volatility. Let's take a look at our concluding slide. Well, I hope you received a lot of benefit from this review of the practice case one and I wish you the best of luck on the practice exam and also consider when you're reviewing the study guide and reviewing the practice exam, go back and feel free to reread material as needed to make sure you understand all of the concepts prior to working on the real exam. Again, I wish you luck and thank you for watching.