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Cody Axtman

5/9/16

Professor Simonson

MGMT 360

Axtmans Technology Solutions

Axtmans Technology Solutions is a small business that strives to satisfy its customers to full

satisfaction. The location of this business is in Fargo along 52nd Ave South in the strip mall next to Dons

car wash. The main service that is offered at Axtmans Technology Solutions is troubleshooting and

repairing computers. This also includes tablets and cell phones. Not only does this business offer a great

service, it also has an inventory of products for sale such as RAM, hard drives, processors, and graphics

cards. Not many businesses in the F-M area have an inventory of computer parts like we do. Also, if you

are looking for a new computer, but cant find the right one, than Axtmans Technology solutions is for

you, because customers have the ability to customize their computer in the store, and we will build it

that day. Instead of going online and trying to figure out what specifications are the best for your

personal use of the computer, we have professional employees that are able to assist you in building the

right computer for you. If customers want to just purchase a laptop that is already built with a brand

name that they are familiar with, we do offer laptops that come from ASUS, Dell, HP, and Toshiba. The

management procedures for this company will be followed by four main points; planning, organizing,

leading, and controlling.

In this business there isnt a need for a lot of employees, so a lot of the workload will be shared

between employees. I am in charge of the business, so I will be the top manager, which deals with the

overall organization of the business, and making sure the business is changing to meet customer needs. I

will also take the responsibility for the middle manager position, making sure that my overall objectives

are planned out, and the expectations are set. The first-line employee will be someone that I hire that
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has some manager experience. This manager will have the responsibility of making sure employees are

trained in, and have the right information to perform their job to the best of their ability. This person

will also make sure that goods and services are available for our customers to suit their needs. This

manager will also be responsible for performance reviews. In this business the team leader will be

assigned to the employee who shows the best performance after 3 months, and will be given a raise.

The team leader will be who other employees can come to if they have questions about something, or

need assistance on a problem. It expected by first-line manager and I that the team leader will work

together and collaborate to solve problems on computers, and help other employees with questions

they have, to help satisfy the customers.

There are many managerial roles that will be incorporated into my business. Starting with the

interpersonal roles, the figurehead role will be me. I will be representing the business to the community,

and will be in charge of greeting company visitors. The leader role will be the first-line manager, because

he will be in charge of encouraging employees to accomplish the business goals. The liaison role will be

me, because I will deal with all outside business deals, or negotiations. Another important section of

roles is informational roles which the monitor role will be me. I will be scanning the environment and

reading up on the news to determine if changes need to be made in the business based upon economic

or relative information to my business. The disseminator role shares information that they have

collected. For example, after every purchase or transaction with a customer, a survey can be taken by

the customer to show whether the customer was satisfied or not. This information is very useful for

managers and employees because it gives us feedback on how well or how bad our customers are being

treated while in the store. This role will be taken by the first-line manager, since he will be working

directly with the employees in the store. Since this is a small business, there wont be any stakeholders,

or board of directors there is no need for a spokesperson in that aspect, but I will be the spokesperson if

there was ever an interview for the local news station. Another important section is decisional roles in
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the business. The entrepreneur role will be held by me, I will make decisions that will better the

business such as investing in new technology products, or adding new services into our business such as

creating websites. The disturbance role will also be held by me, if there is a serious situation that needs

to be handled immediately such as someone hacking into our system, and taking confidential

information action needs to be taken. Making sure these situations are handled right away could be the

difference between your business image staying positive or completely ruining it. The resource allocator

role will be held by the first-line manager, because he will be making sure that inventory is stocked, but

also making sure that we dont have overstock. Another role that the first-line manager will hold is the

negotiator role; they will be charge of negotiating schedules, goals, resources, and raises for employees.

This role is probably the most important for the first-line manager, because they need to make sure this

role is done properly, or some employees could get very frustrated with them. The technical skills, and

human skills role will be held by all of the employees in the business. Everyone needs to be able to

troubleshoot, and also be informational for customers that have questions about products in the store.

They will also need to have the ability to communicate well with customers, so they dont get

misinformed about a product while being helped.

There is a long history of management, and different management methods that have been

found to be very successful for many different companies. An example of this is scientific management,

which is a study and testing of different work methods to figure out what is the most efficient way to

complete a job. I wouldnt use this tactic for my business, because I dont think it would be necessary.

Although I do believe this theory is very important for many companies, especially ones that are

producing products.

The Gantt chart is used to plan out dates, and when things should be done by. I would use this

method for many reasons in my business. Whenever a new employee starts working there should be a

set out plan of training, and when they should be ready to work on their own. This chart can also be
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used to plan out future plans with the business such as expanding, or meeting with more vendors to

open a more variety of computer systems for our customers.

Another management method that would be that would be taken into effect would be

Bureaucratic Management. This type of management style uses knowledge and experience to select

employees for positions. There are seven elements of Bureaucratic Organizations. Qualification-based

hiring, which is used to hire employees based off of their technical or educational background. Since my

business is technology based, I believe all employees that are hired must have some experience in the

technical field already, or have at least a 2 year degree. This will prove that the candidates are fit for the

job. Merit-based promotion will be used for employees that prove that they are ready for a promotion

or a raise. Employees that work hard, and satisfy customers will likely be promoted or given a raise

sooner than employees that dont. Chain of command is the next element, which is used for employees

to report to the next level up above them. For example, the lead technician is above other technicians,

and the lead technician makes decisions, and can tell the technicians below them to do tasks that need

to be accomplished. Although they can tell technicians what they need to do, they are also responsible if

the task gets done properly. The element division of labor is used to divide all of the tasks up to different

employees. Each employee will have tasks every day, although some will be different depending on

position. Technicians will be expected to help customers, and fix computers. Managers are expected to

create expectations and make sure those expectations are met by the employees. Impartial application

of rules and procedures will be used to set policies in the company. These policies affect all of the

employees no matter what their position is. Recorded in writing; all administrative rules and procedures

will be documented in writing. These policies will be available to everyone, and its the employees

responsibility to understand and know the procedures in these guidelines. The last element is Managers

separate from owners. I will let managers make their own decisions in the business. I trust that the
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employee I hire will do the best work they are capable of. This will allow the manager to be comfortable,

and not have to worry about me going over his head on situations, or micromanaging.

The cooperation and acceptance of authority is a great method to bring into the company.

Employees are expected to accept requests from upper management whether they think its

unnecessary or not. Within an organization if there is no collaboration, then things would be a lot more

difficult to complete. Managers are also expected to ask workers work that can actually be carried out,

and not be something that is impossible to complete.

Working in a business that is local, national, or world-wide there are many factors in the

environment that may change a businesss strategy. External environments are forces or events outside

the company that have a potential influence or affect it. An example would be if taxes are raised in

North Dakota, this would affect my business since its a local business and its not a large profitable

business to begin with. Environmental change is rapidly happening especially in the technology aspect.

The technology world is a dynamically changing environment, because things are always changing. My

business will have to keep up with these changes, because computers are always being updated, and we

need to stay up to date with our product inventory. Also, our business will have to deal with a complex

environment, because PCs have grown so much, and are constantly adapting. Our products have to stay

relevant to our customer base, otherwise my business will quickly become obsolete. Resource scarcity is

the shortage of resources in an organization. If there is a shortage of parts and computers that can be

shipped to my business, this could create a decrease in sales, and lower customer satisfaction. We will

always need to be aware of these situation, so we can adapt and make changes to make up for those

losses. Uncertainty is the ability for managers to understand and predict future external changes.

Although it can be difficult to predict what will happen in the future, especially with complex

environments. We always need to be prepared for what is going to happen, because we cant control

the outside.
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Ethics is the set of moral principles or values that defines right and wrong for a person or group.

I believe the code of ethics should be followed by everyone, but there are some situations where

employees dont, and that could cause many problems in a business setting. There are four types of

workplace deviance production, property, political, and personal. Production deviance is a worker that

leaves early, or is taking excessive breaks. I see this issue as very minor, and wont be considered for

major punishment, but the person will be talked to about it, because that is unfair to their co-workers.

Property deviance is destroying equipment, lying about hours worked, and stealing from the company.

This type of behavior will not be tolerated, and will result in job termination if found guilty. The next

deviance is political, which is showing favoritism or gossiping. These types of situations are minor, and

wont result in termination, unless its extreme matter, but I will resolve this conflict by talking to the

source, and figuring out why this behavior is happening, and what can we do to solve it. The last

deviance is personal aggression, which deals with sexual harassment, verbal abuse, or endangering

coworkers. This type of behavior wont be tolerated either. I believe everyone should live in a safe and

non-hostile environment, if the person is found guilty they will be terminated from their job, because its

not necessary for that type of behavior in this business.

Planning is choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal. When

trying to plan out what goals I have for my business, I need to start out with SMART goals. These goals

are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and timely. A specific goal I have for the business is have

positive income after the first year. The goal is easily measurable, because if we make enough sales, and

repairs, the income that comes in should be above costs for the whole year, including start-up costs.

Although this goal is a very tough goal to achieve, its realistic, because the start-up cost wasnt extreme.

I think giving the business a year to achieve this goal is enough time to accomplish. This will give us

enough time to decide what things are working, and what isnt for our business to turn over as much

profit as possible. Although this is the main goal for the first year of business, there needs to
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commitment from the whole team, and not just me. If everyone isnt on board for this goal, then there

is a small chance it wont be achieved. Since my team wont be able to do it themselves, there needs to

be an action plan setup to achieve this goal. There will be specific steps to achieve this goal, such as

figuring out how much inventory to hold, and where we can cut costs. Tracking progress will be used

with proximal goals, which are short-term goals to progress towards the main goal. Such as slowly

increasing profits each month, and these results will be displayed each month, so that the employees

know how much progress they are making. Sometimes events happen that we cant control, so I will

need to stay flexible to this goal. Sometimes there may be lack of resources such as extra time needed

on a repair of a computer that causes us to lose some profit. These things are expected to happen, and I

will need to be prepared.

Strategic planning makes it clear how the company will serve customers and how it will

differentiate against its competitors for the next few years. This is very important, because competition

could run our business out of business one day. We need to differentiate ourselves from other

companies to make us stand out. There needs to be a purpose statement, which will be Axtmans

Technology Solutions is here to help everyone, no matter what experience the customer has, we are

here to help and provide the best solution possible. This statement is something employees should

look up to and strive for. The manager of the business will be in charge of coming up with tactical plans,

which includes budgeting, how we will use resources, and goals. There is management objectives that is

a four-step process which managers discuss possible goals with employees. They will collectively select

goals that are challenging yet attainable. They will jointly develop plans to accomplish these goals, and

they will meet occasionally to make sure these objectives are being met, and if they arent they will

decide what they need to do to achieve them. The head manager will also be in charge of operational

plans. They will be deciding day-to-day plans for services and repairs. They will be making decisions for

single-use plans, for example if the power would go out. The manager is in charge of figuring out a plan
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of action of what needs to be done during this event. Another plan they will be in charge of is standing

plans. These can save managers and employees a lot of time, because this plan can be used repeatedly

for events that occur frequently. The last operational plan is budgeting, which they will be in charge of

setting up a budget, and make sure we dont go over it.

Decision making is a huge part of owning or managing a business. Its the process of choosing a

solution from the available alternatives. Rational decision making is the use of a systematic process

which managers define a problem, evaluate alternatives, and choose optimal solutions. The first step in

decision making is define the problem. What is causing the problem or where did it come from? These

are things managers need to look into. Once the problem is found, they need to decide how to solve this

problem using many alternatives, but selecting the best solution. Once alternatives have been thought

of, the manager will need to weigh the criteria, in which the manager will need to rate the issues to its

own business merits. Once these are taken into consideration the manager will be expected to generate

alternative courses of action if needed, then finalize the decision. The decision should be based off of

what will maximize profit, and satisfying customers as well as possible. I trust that my manager will

make the best decision for the business.

Sustaining a competitive advantage is a very important aspect in a business. This could decide

whether your business succeeds or fails. By creating a greater value for customers, keeping a

competitive advantage can be difficult, especially when there are multiple businesses in the same area

that have the same type of work. The competitive advantage our business will have compared to others

is we have computer parts right in the store, and customers can walk in customize their computer and

leave that day with it ready to be plugged in and work right away. Many businesses in the Fargo area

have pre-made computer for sale without customization. This is a huge deal for people that want a

computer for gaming, because we can upgrade their computer components right in the store. To be able

to sustain the competitive advantage, there needs to be a strategy making process. There are many
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more external factors to consider in business today. Customers needs and wants are constantly

changing, and competitors are constantly trying to work harder, and smarter to meet those needs. The

first step in creating a strategy is determine what needs to be changed. We need to consider if our

strategy needs to change, or stay the same depending on how our profits are doing. Success often leads

to competitive inertia, or a lead in profits and in sales. Doing a situational analysis is always a huge help

when considering changing the companys strategy. A SWOT analysis determines strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, and threats for the business. For Axtmans Technology Solutions the strengths are good

customer service, customers satisfaction high, and efficiency is fixing computers is a 1-2 day turn

around. This is what my business prides itself on, satisfying our customers to make up for some of our

weaknesses in the company. One major weakness is the variety of products from big name companies.

We only have ASUS, Dell, HP, and Toshiba stock computers available for sale if they dont want to

customize their computer. Another weakness that my business has is the name is not very well known,

since its a new business. There are many opportuneness for this company to grow. One example is

opening up more products to customers. An example is adding cell phones or tablets, which will give our

customers more options, and may even increase the amount of customers that come to our shop.

Another option is creating an incentive program for customers. This will help with customer retention,

and help create a strong customer base. External threats are a huge deal for my business, because there

is high competition in the F-M area since there so many repair/sale shops for technology. Another

threat for my business is the demand for cell phones, which is starting to replace a lot of computers

today. Using the SWOT analysis can help my business identify what things we need to worry about, and

what we need to do to keep an advantage over our competitors. Once determining if there is a need for

strategic change in the business alternatives will be decided to help the company create a sustainable

competitive advantage.
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A great way to look at growth rate and help decide what to invest in is the Boston Consulting

Group matrix. This is helps businesses figure out what products or services are working out best for the

company, and what things the business can invest in to help grow the company. This also a great way to

decide what things are low profit or are hurting the company that the company may no longer continue

investing in. There are four different groups for the BCG matrix which are question stars, questions

marks, cash cows, and dogs. Each category is based off of market growth and market share. The star of

my business is repairing computers. There is always a need for repairs with technology, because things

break. As more and more technology is produced, the more technicians will be needed to make the

repairs when those things break down, this is why its a star. Question marks for our business are

desktop computers. There isnt much demand right now for large computers, but since gaming has

become so popular and grows more and more every day, there is a possibility for growth. If people want

more powerful computers, they can come to my business and build their own specifications for their

games, which could increase the market for desktop computers in our business. The dogs of my business

is laptops. Since people can use their phones, or tablets, there isnt really a need for laptops anymore.

They are slowly decreasing in sales, and dont have a big market share. At the moment the store doesnt

have any cash cows, but if cell phones were brought to the business they would be considered cash

cows. They already have a large market share, and its hard to keep growing when pretty much

everyone has a cell phone to begin with. The market share will stay large, but I dont see it rapidly

growing, just slowly. Looking at this aspect of my business allows me to make decisions on what to keep

investing in, since technology repairs is my star; that will be the biggest investment.

Industry-Level strategies asks the question How should we compete in this industry? The five

industry forces are very important for a business. The theory was created by a professor from Harvard

named Michael Porter, which is now named Porters 5 forces. These forces are character of rivalry,

threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of suppliers, and
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bargaining power of buyers. Character of rivalry is the measure of intensity of competitive behavior

among companies in the same industry. There are many companies that are doing the same business as

me, so the competition will be strong. Although the competition is strong, the demand for these

businesses are very high due to many people not being very computer literate, and computer problems

happen all the time. The threat of new entrants is a measure of the degree to which barriers to entry

make it easy or difficult. The barriers to entry are pretty small, since it doesnt take many employees or

much startup cost to actually start the business. Although there are many competitors, its still easy to

enter the market. The threat of substitute products or services is the ability for customers to find

substitutes for the industrys products or services. Computers are sold at multiple stores and there are

multiple repair shops, so there are many substitutes. The major difference between my business and

others, is the ability to put parts together and have a customized computer built. There arent any stores

in the area that build computers right on the spot with your specification desires for the price that we

offer. Bargaining power of suppliers is a measure of influence that suppliers of parts, materials, and

services to firms in an industry have on the prices of these inputs. Since a lot of big names will be sold in

the shop, there wont be much say in the prices that are charged for these products. The only thing I will

be able to set my absolute prices on are for labor, otherwise the products themselves will basically be

similar everywhere. Bargaining power of buys is a measure of the influence that customers have on the

firms prices. Buyers dont have much purchasing power, because they dont influence the prices of our

services or products. There are multiple buyers at this store, and that wont cause the buyers to dictate

the prices. Using porters 5 forces model can really help a business understand the competition in the

area, and what things they can change so that they can earn some power over prices, or create a

competitive advantage.

Another step in the industry-level strategy is protecting your company from negative of effects

of competition. Cost leadership is being able to produce a product or service of acceptable quality at a
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lower costs than competitors. Efficiency is something that is valued at our store. With our guaranteed 2

day turn around policy, we are quicker at lowering the cost of time spend on fixing computers. Although

if we dont fix the computer within two days, the price of the service drops 25%, because we want an

incentive for our workers to work hard, but also have an incentive for customers to come to my store.

Differentiation is making your product or service different from other that customers are willing to pay

more for the extra value it provides. The biggest differentiation is not only being able to buy a new

computer, but being able to build a computer with the right specifications for you, and being able to

take it home that day. This gives users full control of what they want or need, and customers are willing

to pay more, if they are getting exactly what they want. With a focus strategy, you pick either cost

leadership, or differentiation for your products or services. I personally think in this business scenario

differentiation is what is going to be more successful for our business, because customers a lot of our

products we cant really change the price on, but with our repair team we can have the differentiation

of fixing computers more efficiently. Also, we have the opportunity for customers to custom build their

computers right in the store, which many businesses dont have.

The last step in the industry level strategy is adaptive strategies. There are defenders,

prospectors, analyzers, and reactors. Defenders seek moderate, steady growth for their company,

because their customer base is a well-defined group of customers. Prospectors seek fast growth, and are

constantly looking for new opportunities for their business. This strategy wouldnt be something my

business is interested in. Analyzers are a blend of defenders and prospectors, because they look for

moderate, steady growth in their business. This tactic is something I wouldnt use in my business, but it

does have some good incentives for businesses to grow fast. Reactors normally just sit back and wait for

things to happen before they really change anything in their business, I dont like this idea, because if

you wait too long you can get behind the customers desires, and lose a lot of business. The best strategy
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for my business would be defender, because we would have a well-defined group of customers, and Im

not looking to making millions of dollars from profit, I want to keep it a small local business.

Innovation and change is something that is very difficult for many businesses to handle, because

people get comfortable where they are, and are afraid of becoming uncomfortable. Managing change

can even be more difficult, because its hard to motivate people that have no interest in the changes.

Unfreezing is getting people affected by changed to believe that change is needed. For example, if sales

are going down, and there needs to be a procedural change, this needs to be explained to the workers,

otherwise they will never understand why they cant go back to what they use to do. Change

intervention is the process of employees and managers changing their behavior and work practices.

Then once this process has been put in place refreezing is reinforcing the new changes so that they stick.

Resistance to change is inevitable, and natural. Communication is probably the most important during

this phase, because employees need to know exactly what they need to change. When managing

change there are some things that managers shouldnt do. The first two errors occur during the

unfreezing stage. Managers try to get people to be affected by the change, but arent believable. They

dont show how serious the change is needed. This is something to take into consideration if my

business needs a change. The second mistake is not having enough people that support it to make the

change actually happen. The more people that are on board for the change, the more likely it is to

change views for other people. The biggest error by managers is not having a clear vision or poor

planning. Not having a set plan to follow will make employees seem lost, or wont have a sense of

direction, so they wont know how to actually make the change.

Organizational structure is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments, authority,

and jobs within a company. Organizational structure is used to identify who reports to whom, and who

does what work. How the organizational structure will be setup in my business is I will be at the top

which is the owner, and below me will be the head manager. Below the manager will be the head
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technician, and other technicians will be below the lead tech. Functional departmentalization is used for

a lot of small businesses that are just starting out, so using this technique is very helpful for my business

although there arent many departments. Workers are put into different units based on what their job

duty will be. The technicians will be part of the sales/repair department; the manager will be a part of

the accounting, and production department. This will help show what each department is consistently in

charge of. Product departmentalization wont be necessary for my business, since each worker is

responsible for sales and repairs in the business. Customer departmentalization is another concept that

wont be used in my business, but is a great way for customer service if you have multiple different

customers. When a company has customers that can be residential or large businesses, its great to have

this separation to have the best customer service possible. Another organizational aspect is geographic

departmentalization which organizes work and workers into the same unit which is responsible for

particular geographic areas. Since my business is only one location, this wont be necessary. This would

be for businesses like construction that work in a lot of different regions. The matrix

departmentalization is a hybrid structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used

together. This tactic probably wont be necessary either, because this used for multiple departments,

and there are only a few departments in my business.

Authority is the ability to give commands to other people to complete or do a task. The chain of

command is a vertical line of authority. In my business the top of the chain would be me, followed by

the head manager, the lead technician, and then the other technicians. The unity of command is

workers report to just one boss, and this rule will be followed by my business. Technicians should report

to the lead technician, and the lead technician will report to the manager if needed. The chain of

command would use staff authority for authority, because I dont like the idea of bosses being able to

constantly delegate work, when the staff already has a good idea of what they need to do in this

business. The business isnt very difficult, when customers come in they are helped, and when
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computers need to be repaired they should be worked on. There doesnt need to be much delegation in

the process. The delegation of authority is when someone is given the responsibility of someone above

them in the chain of command. For example, if the manager was going to leave work early, the lead

technician could be put in charge for his duties. Centralization is the separation of authority between

managers and other employees. I trust all employees will make decisions on their own that are

responsible, and will help the business. I would use the decentralization theory, because sometimes it

can be difficult to get the managers attention when its very busy. Each worker will have the ability to do

over rides at the cashier till with their own credentials. The only decisions that should be made by the

manager are things like discounts on a product for specific reasons by the customer if they dont have a

coupon.

Teams are small groups of people that work together to achieve the same goal. In this business

everyone is on the same team. They are working together to get each job done as efficiently as possible,

relying on each other to help one another when needed. Since everyone is expected to fulfill all the jobs

in this business, cross-training is a method that is very important for my business. Workers being able to

improve their skills by learning all the different jobs will increase efficiency, and make things easier

when employees need help on a specific task. Even though working for a team can be very useful, there

are some disadvantages of teams. There are times when social loafing occurs, which is people fail to

perform their share of the work. This can cause a lot of frustration with team members.

There are many ways to enhance work team effectiveness when dealing with teams. Setting

goals and priories is a great way to keep a team engaged. If teams don have an end goal, what is the

point of working toward nothing? This is something that is very important. The goal for this team is to

efficiently help customers out when they need it, and to fix computer as fast as they can, but do it in an

effective way as well, we dont want unfinished repairs. Using structural accommodation gives the team

the ability to make changes to meet their needs. If something needs to be changed, I assume they would
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change it automatically to not only help themselves, but to better the business. I am a strong believer in

people should get rewarded for their work. If customers have high satisfaction, and computers are being

fixed very efficiently by the team, I believe a skill-based pay should be rewarded. An increase in pay I

think is well deserved for all team members. Not only will this keep employees happy, this will keep

them engaged to keep working hard, and satisfying customers.

Human resource management is the process of finding, developing, and keeping the right

people to form a qualified work force. Human resource management is one of the most difficult aspects

of a business. Since there isnt much of a need for a large human resource team for my business, I am

using a third party outsource company. This will be used for hiring, firing, and a resource for employees

to go to if they have issues with another employee. Human Resource will be responsible for making sure

employees that get hired get a full background check, and are fully qualified for the job. Resumes and

references will be first sent to HR then they will be selected for interviews. Interviews will then be setup

with the manager. Interviews are expected to be not only knowledge based, but also behavioral. The

questions that are asked are up to the manager, so they will be unstructured interviews. Once the

selection is made, HR is in charge of making sure proper training and materials are given to the new

employee. Training will start with videos and lectures online for a few hours that will help the employee

understand the work force they will be working with, and understanding the rules. Once this process is

done, they will then shadow a technician for a few days going through procedures. Once the employee

feels comfortable working on their own they can start taking tasks. The first three months of

employment is considered an evaluation period. After three months the manager will review with the

employee to let them know if they will be fit for the job, or we will have to let them go.

Working in a business there are a lot of different people that will be involved in your business

from different backgrounds. The employees and I will have to understand cultural differences, because

there might be a case where people from different cultures are hired. Diversity is having people from
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different backgrounds are working together. Diversity allows businesses to have different opinions and

bring in new information that may help us. There will be no tolerance for discrimination based on age,

sex, and race, mental or physical disabilities. Discrimination based on these aspects is illegal, and if

someone is found guilty of this they will be terminated. Everyone should have an opportunity to work in

this business, I want people in this business that may have differences, so they can bring in new

experiences in the work place. If a person has a mental or physical disability there will be made

accommodations for that person if they are qualified.

Motivation is the ability to motive people toward a common goal. Motivation can be very

difficult for a business, because some people just want to show up to work, do their job, then go home.

There is people who are willing to put in a lot of work to increase their performance reviews. Dealing

with motivation in my company will be using increase in pay benefits, and there is incentives to win

prizes such as gift cards. Whoever sells the most products in a 3 month period will win a $25 gift card to

a restraint of their choice. Some employees wont care about the gift card, so another incentive that I

will give to my employees is the ability to increase pay. Each time there is a review, if the employee has

no overdue repairs that went over 2 days, they will be rewarded with a $0.50 raise on their pay. This

should be a huge incentive for workers, because if they consistently work hard, they will be rewarded

for it. Not only will employees be rewarded with incentives, but they will also be thanked for a job well

done. One big motivator for employees is being thanked for a job well done, and being appreciated for

what they do. Motiving with positive reinforcement strengthens the behavior of someone, so using this

tactic will hopefully keep the employees working hard and keep up their behaviors.

There are leaders, and then there are managers. Managers are typically people that constantly

delegate and micromanage every little thing an employee does. Leaders are people who delegate, but

also contribute to the project or task with as much help as people not being bossy. Leaders are able

to motivate people towards a common goal, and I expect that out of the manager. The manager should
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have leadership characteristics, because employees will be more comfortable in the work place, not

having to worry about someone watching over them every second. A leader should be someone who is

easily approachable, they are supportive, and friendly. Using the Blake/Mouton leadership grid there are

many things to consider when deciding what type of leader someone is. Using the middle-of-the-road

management is what will be the most effective for our business. Being able to motive people by keeping

their morale up, but at the same time getting work done efficiently. There are many decision styles that

can be used when making decisions in a business. There is Normative theory decision rules which helps a

lot with making very important decisions. Some of these rules I would incorporate into my business such

as the decision rules to increase decision quality. For example, if the quality of a decision is important,

then I wouldnt use the autocratic decision style. Another decision is the leader information rule. If the

quality of the decision is important, and the leader doesnt have enough information to make a decision

then dont use the autocratic decision style.

Managing communications problems in a business can be very difficult, because some people

dont think its necessary to communicate certain things, but then it ends up with employees or

customers upset. Communication is the process of someone encoding a message, sending it over a

medium, and the end user decodes the message and understands it, then sends feedback. There are

sometimes barriers or noise that can cause a message to not be fully understood. Noise is background

noises of any kind that can interfere with the message. The hardest part about communication is

understand peoples perception on things. For example, self-perception bias can cause a lot of issues

with communication. For example, selective perception is the tendency to notice and accept values or

beliefs that are common to the person, and things that are inconsistent information are ignored. In a

conversation there should always be closure, to make sure the person fully understands what you are

telling them, because they make assumptions that arent true. As an owner of this business, one of the

biggest things that I need to do is be a listener. Listening can not only make my business more
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successful, but being able to listen will make me a better communicator. There is active listening and

empathetic listening. I preferably choose active listening, because I think someone should give feedback

in a conversation to show that you actually are listening.

In a business someone needs to be in full control, which is the process of establishing standards

to achieve organizational goal. Standards are set in place, but if nobody is there to make sure those

standards are being followed, there is no point. A popular standard that is setup in businesses is

benchmarking, which is the process of determine how well other companies are doing compared to

yours in performing business functions. This research will be used to figure out what standards should

be set in place of our business with being reasonable. Sometimes control isnt always worthwhile or

possible. There are occurrences where there can be profit loss, such as selling computers a lower price

and being profitable and our business standard is we have the lowest prices. That wouldnt make sense,

because if your prices are low, but make no profit, you will run out of business.

Another very important aspect of controlling is managing information. Computer hardware and

software is needed to store a lot of data. Using information is very useful data that can see customer

behaviors. This can help a business make decisions based on how their customers are responding to

prices, discounts, and repairs in the store. Using information can also help a business keep a sustainable

competitive advantage. If a business is constantly ahead of the game with new technology coming out,

and keeping customers up to date with those products, they can keep a strong advantage because

customers will likely come to your business if you have the new thing before anyone else. Although

there are a lot of benefits from information, there are also costs. Acquisition costs is the cost of

obtaining data that you dont have. If I want to gather information that I dont have through a third

party business that is a possibility, but it can be very expensive. Another costs is processing costs, which

is turning raw data into useful information. Another costs is storage costs, such as using a third party

company to store your data. Although its expensive you wont have to worry about losing data, because
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these companies can be used to backup information and restore on your computer if needed. Retrieval

costs are the cost of accessing already-stored and processed information. You have to find the

information, then have to convince whoever has it to share it with you. This process takes a lot of time

and can be costly. The last cost is communication. That is the cost of transmitting the data. There are so

many costs when it comes to storing and using data, so data will only be used when absolutely

necessary.

There are many different ways to run a business, and some are managed better than others. As

an owner there will be things to learn every day, and I will have to adapt to them. Its not an easy job

owning a business, because one decision could ruin the whole business. Good thing there are many

resources to help start a company, and learn how to deal with many different scenarios. Axtman

Technology Solutions is the best place for your technology needs, and I hope to keep it that way.