Mental illness has been described as an epidemic affecting nearly a quarter of all Americans in their lifetimes, often during their most productive working years. Managers who can design organizations that maximize mental health can minimize these risks and boost productivity. This note serves as a guide to understanding mental health in the American workplace. It provides an overview of the most prevalent mental health conditions among employees and the aspects of the work environment that can exacerbate the issues. It also looks at the costs, both to individuals and to companies, of treating or not treating mental health conditions, and outlines the legal framework, insurance plans, and managerial responses to accommodating employees who struggle with mental health issues. To engage students in a role play, the note includes a vignette featuring a struggling CEO.
The case explores a public-private partnership initiative on environment education in India, highlighting the strategic, institutional, and reputational implications for corporate social responsibility in an emerging country context. Launched in 2010 with a target to reach 200,000 schools, "Paryavaran Mitra" (Friends of the Environment) was a multi-layered collaboration with three primary and more than 160 secondary partners. The case is positioned in 2013, when the senior manager of corporate responsibility for the firm that serves as the corporate sponsor of the project must make a decision about the future of the initiative.
The director of analytics and reporting at The Leading Hotels of the World and his team were to present their new idea to the company's executive team: the hotel engagement scorecard (HES). HES was received well and gained recognition from the executive team of 10 members, becoming one of four company goals for the year. HES was to be implemented across all of The Leading Hotels of the World's 25 global offices and more than 430 member hotels. As the founder of the idea, the director of analytics and reporting felt responsible and motivated to make HES as strong as possible before its implementation. He wondered how HES innovation could move forward and assist member hotels as much as possible.
This case has a twofold focus: first, to project a budget for pharmaceuticals based on morbidity patterns, required drug regimens, and unit costs, and to focus on ways the budget might be cut if necessary; second, to prepare a modified version of a breakeven analysis for the community pharmacies.
Discusses the various types of costs that can exist in manufacturing settings; how to compute cost of good manufactured and cost of goods sold; how to determine predetermined overhead rates; how to compute flexible overhead budgets; the managerial use of overhead variances; the distinction between absorption and variable costing; and the impact of JIT on the differences between absorption and variable costing.
Discusses several analytical techniques that incorporate the multi-year period over which a new asset will be used, and looks at three of these techniques (payback period, net present value, and internal rate of return). Examines the choice of a rate of return (or discount rate), the issue of risk, and how companies deal with risk in assessing investment proposals. Also discusses some non-quantitative considerations that can influence senior management's decision about a capital investment (or programming) proposal. Concludes with a description of ways that programming relates to several other organizational activities.
Focuses on the way managers can affect the items on an organization's financial statements. In particular, financial management is concerned with the choices that managers make about (a) the use of debt or equity to finance assets, (b) the structure of debt, (c) the magnitude of net income, and (d) the management of cash. Discusses both the operating cycle and the financing cycle as two cash-related cycles that must be carefully managed.
Discusses some basic techniques for financial statement forecasting, including the operating and financing cycles. Discusses three important financial management concepts: debt structure, leverage, and the role of profit. Makes a distinction between financial risk and business risk. Examines some issues related to financing fixed assets, including issues related to financing growth. Discusses cost behavior and its relationship to forecasting financial statements, and the differential cost concept, Examines some techniques for undertaking alternative choice decisions concerning discontinuing a product line, and discusses several important principles associated with alternative choice decisions. Concludes with a discussion of the concept of contribution and the structure of a contribution income statement.
Discusses the gap between reality and the NPM paradigm and the lessons that can be transferred from the private to the public sector. Address the difference between bureaucratic control and managerial control, and how to move toward managerial control. Focuses on the barriers to effective managerial control and how to overcome them, including the control culture, centralized decision making, the distinction between planning and control, absence of market forces, task complexity, and personnel policies. Includes a discussion of responsibility centers as a decentralizing mechanism, and how a well-prepared set of management control reports can assist managers.
Discusses some basic concepts of financial statements, including the balance sheet and what it measures, the nature of some specific assets and liabilities, the income statement and what it measures, the creation of owners' equity, and the basis for changes in it. Also addresses several fundamental accounting concepts (entity, dual aspect, money measurement, cost, realization), and some basic accounting and finance matters, including the nature of an account, leverage, unmeasured value, and depreciation.
Hyrule Cinemas is losing money quickly and its owner must take steps to rectify the problem. Using survey data and general information about the business, three types of analysis can be completed: Van Westendorp, conjoint, and a decision tree. These analyses will enable Hyrule Cinemas to make the best decision possible about price points and location, thereby helping the company to become profitable. A student spreadsheet is available (see 7B14E012).
In 2013, controversy arose over the actions of Adria Richards, a developer-evangelist, in response to remarks she overheard being made by two male attendees at a technology conference. After she reported what she believed to be sexist remarks by posting a photo of the men and a comment on Twitter, the two men were asked to leave the conference session and one was soon fired. A firestorm ensued during which Richards' actions were subjected to scrutiny and the larger question of whether sexism hindered women's participation in the technology industry received a great deal of attention.
A vice-president of human resources at a technology software provider was reviewing the employee appraisal submissions for her firm. After years of rapid growth, the firm was underperforming relative to its peers and it seemed that part of the problem was its relaxed performance appraisal system. As much had been written about Microsoft Corporation’s stack ranking system, the human resources executive wondered how much she could learn about appraisal systems from this example.