AMBA 610 Knowledge Exam

Content - 80 points

Issue 1 - Ethics and Legal Environment - 35 points (1,000-word limit)

Angelo Decco, or “Angel” to his friends, grew up in a tough section of Detroit. Although there seemed to be a different street gang on every block, each trying to recruit him to become a member, through good fortune and some timely interventions at critical moments during his school years by family and youth counselors from the church he attended, Angel managed largely to avoid the gangs and graduate from high school without any major problems. Although his academic record was not stellar, it was good enough to secure him a place in the freshman class at a branch of the state university; and he was able, as a walk-on, to secure a partial athletic scholarship from the varsity curling team (a sport he had picked up through many visits to the YMCA). With a little funding from his family, the curling scholarship, and several part-time jobs, Angel was able—barely—to cover his tuition, room, and board at the university. But there was rarely much left for social activities, and almost no time for socializing anyway.

One evening in his sophomore year, as he sat in the student union feeling exhausted and a bit down about his prospects for keeping up his grueling schedule until graduation, he was approached by Peter Perp, who he recognized as a guy from his neighborhood who had tried a couple of times in the past to recruit him to a local gang. Peter was looking for someone to assist him with a few quick “extracurricular activities” that would be good for a great deal of “easy money,” which would let Angel dump his time-consuming part-time gigs and relax a little. After a couple of beers, this proposal sounded pretty good to Angel, who agreed to assist Peter. Peter and Angel then went to Peter’s car, where Peter gave Angel a sawed-off shotgun—“just for, you know, the street cred”—and they proceeded to drive to a candy store and rob it. As Peter had predicted, it was an easy job—Angel showed the gun, Peter emptied the cash register, no shots were fired, no one was hurt, and Angel’s cut was more than sufficient to enable him to ditch his part-time work.

After that, life became a lot better for Angel: he was able to concentrate on his academics and his grades improved; he was able to socialize and became pretty popular; and he even managed to acquire a girlfriend. Whenever he needed some cash, he’d team up with Peter and they’d rob another candy store. Life was good.

Of course, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end and, unfortunately for Angel, the good life for him ended in the middle of his junior year when he and Peter picked the wrong candy store to rob. Angel and Peter were arrested and sentenced to 10-year terms in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.

Angel was a model prisoner and, with time off for good behavior, was released from prison after serving eight-and-a-half years. After his release, Angel went back to college and finished his degree. He did so well that he was then able to go on to obtain a full academic scholarship and earn a graduate degree. With his degrees in hand, Angel returned to his old neighborhood in the city, where he founded a very successful and well-thought-of crisis intervention center for disadvantaged youth. He ran this award-winning center for three decades, until his retirement.

When he retired, Angel and his wife (his old girlfriend, who had forgiven him) moved to a pleasant area of New Mexico, where they became very active in community volunteer work and social events and made many friends. Among these was Mike Musket, the CEO of a gun manufacturing company whose operations were nearby. Mike and Angel hit it off right away and over the years became good friends. Mike respected Angel’s energy and people skills and his commitment to community work even in retirement. He thought that Angel would be a great addition to his company’s board and proposed this to Angel, who accepted. Angel served on the board for a number of years and eventually, based on his excellent work and cordial relationships with all the other board members, was elected chairman.

Unfortunately for Angel, Peter Perp—who had not been a model prisoner and who had served his full 10-year sentence (and been in and out of jail several times since)—nursed a grudge against him, blaming Angel for their having been caught in the first place. When Peter learned from an old neighborhood acquaintance where Angel was living, he leaked a story to the local paper all about Angel’s criminal history. The story was released as a front-page, headline expose. The community was shocked. Mike began receiving angry letters demanding that he dismiss Angel from the board. Shareholders began calling, demanding to know what was going on.

In an interview with the paper, Angel stated that he had never lied about his past or tried to cover up what he’d done. He said that after he moved to New Mexico, the subject of his criminal past had never come up and he had seen no reason to disclose it. Angel’s wife stated that she thought Angel should be praised, not blamed, for how hard he had worked to overcome his mistakes and make amends by giving back to the community all these years.

Mike released a statement saying that although Angel had done wrong in his youth he had paid his debt to society and since then had led an exemplary life for 45 years. Some people were sympathetic to this view, but negative comments continued to arrive in Mike’s office and demands for Angel’s dismissal escalated.

What action, if any, should Mike take, and why? What are Mike’s options? How should he assess them? Make a recommendation to Mike regarding what he should do, and support your recommendation using the Badaracco ethical analysis framework you’ve been introduced to in this course.

Be sure to cite any reference sources you use from the AMBA 610 course materials. Do not use any materials outside of AMBA 610 course materials.

Issue 2 - Organizational Environment - 35 points (1,000-word limit)

Incredibly Corporation (IBC) Big is a technology manufacturing firm with more than 150,000 employees in its worldwide operations. It currently does business in 95 countries and generates more than $22 billion in revenue. Among its many products are wind turbine power generators, light rail cars, automotive assembly robotics, and oil refinery plant process controls. The nature of these, and other, high-tech products makes it critically important that IBC be on the cutting edge of innovation and that it leverage to the extent possible economies of scale in its research/development and production processes. IBC’s customers pay top-dollar for these big-ticket products, so they are demanding in terms of having the most up-to-date and best-functioning technology.

Additionally, because of the nature of IBC’s products, its customers are often either governments or government-subsidized companies; so political concerns frequently come into play during the product sales cycle. Often governments favor suppliers that they perceive as country-friendly and committed for the long term: that, for example, hire local labor, purchase raw materials locally, and maintain an in-country presence—such as a subsidiary—to ensure knowledge of and compliance with local laws and regulations.

In thinking about IBC’s competitive environment and what the best structure might be to remain successful, its CEO, Eustace Mannerly, had the following thoughts about the attributes he’d like the company to have:

•It must be both global (to be able to offer the finest technology available) and local (to respond to political aspects of the buying-decision process)

•It must be both large (to enjoy needed economies of scale) and small (to be nimble in decision making and adjusting to marketplace changes)

•It must be both decentralized (to nurture innovation and intrapreneurship) and centralized (in its reporting and control, to insure accountability and consistency in implementation)

Considering all the above, Eustace thinks that a matrix design might be the way to go in terms of an organizational structure that will let IBC meet its goals and prosper into the future.

Answer the following questions about Incredibly Big Corporation’s proposed structure. Be sure to state clearly any assumptions you make about the organization as part of the description of factors to consider and state the reasons for including each factor. Use organizational structure language and theory in your response.

1) Is a matrix a good choice for IBC? Advise Eustace on the possible advantages and disadvantages of adopting this organizational structure.

2) Assuming that Eustace decides to go ahead with a matrixed organization, describe to him, at a high level, what such an organization might look like in terms of business units and spans of control.

Be sure to cite any reference sources you use from the AMBA 610 course materials. Do not use any materials outside of AMBA 610 course materials.

Issue 3 - Critical Thinking - 10 points (400-word limit

Read the following paragraph and provide a brief analysis of it from a critical thinking point of view

“Why do people fall for all the fad diets out there when the only nutrition plan that’s even close to sensible is the Hunt & Peck Diet? Anyone who thinks another diet will do them any good is a complete cretin who knows nothing about the nutritional needs of the human body. The Hunt & Peck for Health diet book has been a top seller on Barnes & Noble.com for over 6 weeks now, far outselling any other diet books, which demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that this diet is superior to all others. This diet takes us back to the old ways of dealing with food; and as everyone knows, the old ways are the best ways. My friend Bertha, who has tried more diets than you can shake a Tootsie Pop at, has lost a pound and a half on this diet, which is a record for her and proves how effective this breakthrough diet concept is. Plus, this diet has been mentioned in several major newspapers and you can see dozens of ads for it each evening on late-night cable TV shows, which means it must be legit. The concept of chasing down your own food and eating it raw on the spot is an incredible breakthrough that none of those hoity-toity think-tank researchers has managed to come up with, despite the claims of all the fundraising junk mail they send out every year! In fact, I heard that four out of five research scientists have never heard of this diet, which goes to show that research is useless and we should stop making contributions to those do-nothing medical research organizations. Sure, there may be some folks out there who are too slow to be able to run down a deer; but the beauty of this diet is that they can lose weight by eating twigs and nuts, or by raiding dumpsters, just like our nomadic ancestors did. Or simply by doing a lot of running after deer, even if they don’t catch them! Anyway, people really need to get onto this diet; if they don’t, the whole country is going to be couch potatoes before too long. One great aspect of this diet is that you don’t have to keep track or what you eat, or weigh yourself, or do much of anything, unless you want to, which is terrific because everybody wants freedom from having to worry about their weight. Also, did I mention that this diet book is really cheap to buy, which is the most important thing people care about in terms of choosing a diet? Anyway, do this diet—you’ll be glad you did. It’s the greatest. ”

You don't need to apply all of Browne & Keeley’s 10-critical thinking steps, but you must include at least the following three:

1. What is the issue and what is the conclusion?

2. Identify at least three reasoning fallacies, by name, and explain why they are fallacies in this argument.

3. Identify a value assumption in the argument and explain why it is a value assumption.

Be sure to cite any reference sources you use from the AMBA 610 course materials. Do not use any materials outside of AMBA 610 course materials.

Form: Follow your instructor’s specific format guidelines, if any. Graduate-level structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, word usage, and citations are expected to be reflected in your answers: 20 points