Tracey, age 56, was laid off from her bank job 6 months ago; she has been applying for various positions with very little response and only one interview, and her state unemployment insurance has just ended. As a single mother, she was unable to save much for her retirement. She now fears she will run through her small retirement savings to pay the mortgage on her condo and other bills. She has also been without health insurance since losing her job because she couldn’t afford COBRA payments or the insurance available through the ACA. Tracey is considering selling her condo and moving in with one of her siblings while she continues to look for work. She’s hoping she can eventually find a job with health insurance benefits that will last until she qualifies for Medicare.

1.​What do you think are some reasons that Tracey’s economic situation is so unstable?

2.​The ADEA, or Age Discrimination in Employment Act, made it illegal to discriminate against older workers because of their age, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report on the state of age discrimination stated that “age discrimination remains a significant and costly problem for workers, their families, and our economy.” How do employers get away with discrimination against older workers in spite of the ADEA?

3.​What policy changes would you propose that could help someone in Tracey’s situation obtain healthcare coverage?

4.​What prejudices do you think you hold against older people in the workforce? Why?

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. 

Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

You have completed Parts 1 and 2 of the Organizational Change Action Plan project. This week, you will begin to work on Part 3 of the project. Remember, Part 4 of the project (References and Appendices) will be worked on throughout the course.

Based upon the course readings, supplementary materials, and your own literature search via the CTU online library, discuss the following:

Evaluate the academic and practitioner literature as applied to the client organization Discuss how systems interact. For example, describe the importance of understanding system dynamics.

Provide at least 2 scholarly resources to support your response. Use the LIBRARY or the MGMT Doctoral Library for help.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Steven Sample described two rules of decision making for contrarian leaders: “(1) Never make a decision yourself that can reasonably be delegated to a lieutenant; (2) Never make a decision today that can reasonably be put off to tomorrow” (Sample, 2003). 

• Discuss your agreement or disagreement with these rules. 
  • Identify  pros and cons of these rules of decision making. 
  • Discuss  if these rules would be effective if applied in your current work environment. 
  • Discuss a  work, life, or academic decision-making situation when you followed these  rules and the results were positive and a situation when you followed these rules and the results did not yield positive results. 

In addition to addressing all requirements of the assignments, model answer includes the following:

• Recognize that using the contrarian leaders’ decision-making rules depends on several conditions:
• First, to delegate to a lieutenant, one must have someone he or she trusts, is knowledgeable to make the same decision as the leader and understands the complexity of the situation to make the      right decision (these complexities are often not pushed down to the next level). 
• To hold off on decisions will depend on the culture and structure of the organization. If the organization is one that requires quick decisions, and a lot of other factors depend on that decision, then  following rule 2 would not be effective in that culture. 
• Additionally responses will be based on the personal  experiences i.e. answers will vary.

Additional Resources:

• Bayan, Y. F. (2018). Application of path-goal      leadership theory and learning theory in A learning organization. Journal      of Applied Business Research, 34(1), 13-22.
• Bickle, J. T. (2017). Developing Remote Training Consultants      as Leaders-Dialogic/Network Application of Path-Goal Leadership Theory in      Leadership Development. Performance Improvement, 56(9), 32–39.

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words: 

• Both employers and workers frequently misunderstand the difference between an employee and a contract worker. Discuss the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. Consider the legal and ethical considerations in misclassifying the worker. Do recent differing court decisions about Uber and Lyft drivers impact the classifications as to who is and who is not an employee.

Locate an article from a scholarly journal or industry magazine about a specific arbitration case, involving a union or non-union, related to the topics introduced in Chapter 5 of your textbook. Some topics to consider, but not limited to, bargaining, negotiations, norms, and zone of possible agreement. The article must have been published in the past five years. The format for the article critique is as follows:

• Article Title
• Journal Name and Date
• Key Points: (Five to seven key ideas from the article)
• Summary: (Two to three paragraphs summarizing the article in your own words)
• Personal Evaluation: (Two to three paragraphs highlighting the relevance of this article to your position or occupation, your agreement or disagreement with the author and/or findings, and any additional insights you may have.)

Note: The arbitration does not need to be one specifically related to your occupation. It can involve any job field

Your response must be a minimum of two pages. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.