short discussions

1.

exploring the Role of the Federal Reserve Bank

The Federal Reserve Bank (the “Fed”) is the central bank of the United States. One of its jobs is to manage the money supply. Sometimes it increases the money supply. Sometimes it decreases the money supply.

Reply to these questions in your post:

• Name at least one action that the Fed could take to reduce the money supply and raise interest rates.
• Given our current economy, would you recommend that the Fed reduce the money supply and raise interest rates, or expand the money supply and lower interest rates? Please explain.

2.

Hiring Decisions: Motivation vs. Ability

Your company promoted you to a management position in the new
research facility in India. Surprisingly, you have adjusted to the new
culture, language, and navigating the city, despite never having lived
outside the country before. You arrive to work early to get a jump start
on your day and notice on the payroll report that there are a few
employees who have taken an occasional three-day weekend. None of the
employees have taken a full week off, however. You know from previous
management training classes that overworked employees are more prone to
stress-related health issues and less safe at work. You must also
consider the company’s bottom-line. You want your employees to take more
time off work to enjoy time with friends and family, but how? Please
respond to the following questions:

• Which motivational theory(s) do you think would help communicate the importance of vacation time to your employees?
• How would you convince your employees that taking time off work is more beneficial in the long run for them and for the company?

3.

Does Technology Help or Harm Security Efforts?

Three months ago, you decided to hire freelance workers because the
company was overloaded by the amount of data processing (due to the
growth of the company). Today is the last Friday of the month and you
have to process the invoices from the freelance workers. The freelance
workers are doing an excellent job processing the invoices. The amount
of hours used to complete the work, however, increases each month. Last
month, the freelancers’ timesheet showed they spent an average 18 hours
to go through the data for one client. This month, the freelancers
spent an average of 25 hours per account. This is troubling since it
took in-house processing 5-7 hours to go through the data for one
client. The most inexperienced employee on the team took 9 hours to
process one client’s account.

You discussed with another manager the situation and he suggested
using a software program called EyeSpy that takes pictures of
freelancers’ computer screens and records keystrokes and mouse clicks
periodically throughout the day. At the end of each week, you can drill
down by worker, examining their productivity to give you an accurate
report of who is doing what while on the clock.

• Should the company be allowed to install the EyeSpy software to
  monitor performance? If not, what are other suggestions on finding out
  why there are variations in the freelancers timesheet?
• Is it legal for organizations to monitor the performance of the employee’s without telling them? Why or why not?