Starbucks Case Study: Analyzing Employee Job Attitudes, Organizational Behavior, Structure, and Culture

 

Introduction

Starbucks is an American based coffee and coffeehouse company. Founded in 1971, the company is amongst the leading brands in the coffee industry globally. Precisely, Starbucks operate across 64 countries with 23,187 stores and 17000 dedicated employees (Volle, 2021).  Apart from coffee, Starbucks stores serve wide range of products that include snacks and full-leaf teas.

Organizational behavior is one of the components that are salient to Starbucks and it starts with its top-level management.  The success of Starbucks has been primarily because of its consistent and well implemented of the organizational behavior practices. Among the organizational behavior concepts where the company has been performing exemplary are motivation and HR practices.  Thus, the Starbucks case analysis report narrow down motivation and organizational culture OB practices to “paying attention to employees’ job attitudes” and “ looking at the organizational structure and organizational culture”.

The rest of the Starbucks case analysis report is structured as follows: section two is the literature analysis of “paying attention to employees’ job attitudes” and “looking at the organizational structure and organizational culture” OB practices. The report targets to expound on the concepts using the relevant theories and literatures. Section three entails analysis the two selected OB practices in relation to Starbucks coffee company. Furthermore, the analytically argument is built on the strengths and weakness of Starbuck’s approaches on the concepts. Section four and the concluding section is the recommendation and conclusion. The section summarizes the key findings on the case analysis and provides some recommendations.

Literature review

An organization has the potentialities to reduce absenteeism, minimize workers turnover, and enhance employee’s motivation and also balloon productivity and profitability by implementing the rudimentary organizational behavior component successfully. In this context, within the operation of an organization, OB practices pinpoint the difference between success and failure. The realm has been the recipe of a success of a myriad business organization in the contemporary world.  Therefore, organizational behavior is defined as subject that explores the impact individuals, groups and companies have on the behavior in an organization purposely for application of such knowledge for the enhancement of an organization’s effectiveness.  Since OB is a broad concept it can be subdivided into mini-concepts.  Mini-concepts include but not limited to “paying attention to employees’ job attitudes” and “looking at the organizational structure and organizational culture”.

The assessment of the employees’ attitude is imperative in pinpointing the employees who will leave or stay employees who will have a better performance and employees who will be more engaged. Thus, it’s prerequisite in tracking of satisfaction and commitment levels central to the health of an organization.  The attitudes have the potential to influence employees’ behaviors in terms of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.  The work attitude can be explained in terms of the personality test and based on the big five personality model work: openness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness (Rothmann et al., 2003).   It is imperative for the organization to understand that positive affective disposition of employees  tend to make them more satisfied with their jobs and commitment to the organization while individuals with negative disposition are less satisfied and committed to the organization.  Neurotic personality is individuals who are less satisfied with their job while those whose emotion is more stable are satisfied with their job. Traits such as openness, extraversion and conscientiousness are regarded as positive work attitudes. These types of employees are regarding the environment of their job to be more positive. Also, they perceive their parent company to have a better relationship with them and make them happy hence it increases their satisfaction and commitment.

Another aspect of the organizational behavior is organizational culture and structure.  On one side, organizational culture is an intrinsic factor of the OB. In other words, it plays a central role in directing the way employees behave in an organization by interior operations and by influencing assumptions, values, norms etc. as per the organization protocol. On the other side, organizational structure is a salient factor of the OB that influences people behaviors from outside by creation of limitations set by factors such as division of labor. Thus, the fundamental behavior of an individual in an organization is because of the effect of culture and structure (Francesco et al., 2005).  Based on the McClellard’s need theory organizational structure is centered on the need for achievement, power and affiliation.  Precisely, the need for achievement entails excellence in maintaining positive attitudes and norms to achieve the organizational goals and overcome challenges.  Also, it ensures that through there are limitations to influence people from outside due to organizational structure. The need for power influences the norms and behaviors of other employees to work towards the same goal and finally, need for affiliation ensures there is positive and close relationship in an organization.

Analysis of OB at Starbucks

Starbuck paying close attention to employees attitude makes them people oriented. Through motivation of the employees the company increases productivity and minimizes employee turnover.  Starbucks has been fostering strong belief in promoting positive workers behaviors and ensure all the employees are working as a team on all levels in the organization (Mosely, 2007). The paying attention to the employees attitude has enable the company to make each of them to be accountable and responsible depending on their strength in functioning their duties in relation to the supporting of the organizations  goals and visions. However, paying close attention to employees’ attitude will require the company to provide enough opportunity and training to its human capital which is expensive since a lot of resources are needed to improve on the human resources

Starbucks organizational culture is confined to product, people and its store ambience. The company strives to provide to level coffee experience that improves the life of young people and curious adults. Therefore, the involvement and the personal interaction are central to Starbucks experiences (Schultz et al., 2012). Since, the company stands for passionate and committed employees, the organizational culture have enabled the company to treat its employees with respect and dignity.  On the other hand, the organizational structure at Starbucks was developed in a manner that it enables proper attention is provided to all its departments as well as ensuring there is proper and effective division of all the responsibilities and duties.

However, at Starbucks, a major transformation attempt makes worsen the situation. If any of the organizational culture and structure beliefs are shaky, the organizational change may weaken the system further. Therefore, the company will be forced to employ serious motivation to solve performance problems which is very expensive

Conclusion

From the organizational behavior, it is certain that it behaviors of employees in an organization varies from one employee to another.  The theories in the case study have helped in pointing out the reason behind complex and several employees’ behavior. Furthermore, it’s prerequisite for the company to shape them around its goals and objectives. Starbucks is people oriented therefore it has been paying close attention to its employees attitudes to function its effective and efficient system to provide to its customers top-notch experience via quality products and achieve a sustainable improvement.

For an effective organizational behavior the paper recommends the following:

ü    Effective communication channel to communicate organization change to employees

ü    To provide motivation at all levels of performance to boost attitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

References

Francesco, A.M. and Gold, B.A., 2005. International organizational behavior.

Rothmann, S. and Coetzer, E.P., 2003. The big five personality dimensions and job performance. SA Journal of industrial psychology, 29(1), pp.68-74.

Mosley, R.W., 2007. Customer experience, organisational culture and the employer brand. Journal of brand management, 15(2), pp.123-134.

Schultz, H., 2012. Pour your heart into it: How Starbucks built a company one cup at a time. Hachette UK.

 Volle, P., 2021. Rhetorical history and strategic marketing: the example of Starbucks. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21st century FOX sexual harassment accusations

 

21^st century FOX sexual harassment accusations

We are saddened by the recent allegations surrounding sexual harassment with our employees. 21^st century FOX Company is committed to uphold a safe and inclusive workplace for all people. The 21^st century FOX stakeholders have severally committed to change the world by ensuring that the workplace is a better place to exhibit individuals’ talent and abilities as well as improving and sharpening of one’s capacity. I can attest the community mission is what inspires to have an inclusive and safe environment. And it is why we continuously strive to achieve more regardless of the challenges while angling for expansion and redefining possibilities in the coming days. The company is assessing these sexual harassment situations and accusations. We honestly want to understand what occurred and our next step will be to work with the human resource management and legal team to determine and refine the best cause of action. In additional, our team of experts is expected to conclude its investigation as soon as possible since we believe justice delayed is justice denied.

21st century FOX emphatically denounce these sexual harassment allegations and determine to address this problem once and for all. Therefore, we believe that the challenges to achieve this milestone may appear complex, but the philosophy is simple: prudently implementation of our vision and mission that define our deep-though roadmap to greatness. It is in this regard that 21^st century FOX what to open up to the whole world to stress it does not condone sexual harassment. Thus, the organization has adopted these particular initiatives:

Media coverage: we invite the media to come and have coverage of our workplace to ascertain indeed it is safe and secure. The three-day media coverage tour will unravel the investigation team proceedings as well day-to-day company's activities.

Seminar: The organization is planning to stage numerous yearly seminars to create awareness on the sexual harassment. The seminar to achieve a greater cause is expected to be open to the members of the surrounding community.  The end of the seminars should see the attendees being awarded with certificates and honors making them ambassadors of upholding a free and inclusive community free from sexual harassment.

 

FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT OF ERP SYSTEM

 

Introduction

ERP is a system that functions toward the creation of an integrated product that monitors and controls the majority of functions within an organization. Scott (2002) defined an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system as “a suite of integrated corporate-wide software applications that drives manufacturing, financial, distribution, HR, and other business functions in a real-time environment”. Before introduction of ERP, companies’ mode of operations was incorporating different applications to automate various operations. The system is increasingly salient in the modern organization because of its ability to enable integration of the flow of material, finance and information and also provision of formidable ground for organizational strategies. Thus, Integration is the most important aspect of the ERP system.

The report's premise is to conduct the feasibility assessment of the three ERP systems: 'SAP on-premises system', Noria on-premises system' and 'Noria cloud (SaaS) system'. The selection is in alignment with the Diet centre case study to select the most suitable ERP system. The feasibility assessment is based on three assessments: technical feasibility, economic feasibility and organizational feasibility. The selected ERP system is SAP on-premise system.

 Problem statement

Diet Centre through its CEO, Wazzan, is convinced they need to consolidate its operations through the integration of the ERP system in their operation. Since, the Diet centre is based in Lebanon, a country that has faced an unstable political situation as well as poor economic conditions; they are uncertainties surrounding the implementation of such a large investment system. Therefore, the feasibility assessment of SAP on-premises system', Noria on-premises system' and 'Noria cloud (SaaS) system' should help in selecting an ERP system to provide substantive benefits. In a nutshell, the system should be reliable and cost-effective.

Technical feasibility

The technical aspect involves the extent to which the system can be designed, developed and installed by the experts successfully (Fincham, 2002). One of the major aspects of technical feasibility is whether the software host is in the cloud or on-premises.

Familiarity with application

Diet centre analysts are unfamiliar with these three applications.  These applications have never been integrated into the company, therefore is a greater risk of missing the opportunities prerequisite to solving the problem facing Diet Centre.  Therefore, these systems are riskier considering there is no extension of the existing systems in the company.

 Familiarity with technology

 Since these ERP systems are new within the Diet centre organization context there is a high chance of occurring problems and risks. The technology has never been used before, therefore, there is a need for more time for the analysts to learn and improve their skills in the utilization of the system. Furthermore, the risk of SAP on-premises system' and Noria on-premises system' is less compared to Noria cloud system. It is associated with the fact that cloud-system technology is new therefore; the chances of experiencing problems are high.

 Project size

Compared to both Noria on-premises system' and 'Noria cloud (SaaS) system', the 'SAP on-premises system', is a large project. It is because the project involves many heavy users. The system requires 50 workstations and 40 laptops as part of the initial hardware architecture. Furthermore, SAP on-premise implementation is expected to take up to 18 months. The duration will entail set-up, testing and training for seamless implementation. Therefore, since SAP on-premises, is a large project, it presents more risk considering they are complicated to manage and thus some of the system requirements may be overlooked.

In comparison between the on-premise and cloud system is that, on-premises system requires longer implementation time compared to cloud systems, thus they will tend to be more risky.

Compatibility

The case study indicates that all the ERP systems are compatible with the already existing systems. The existing ABC system was unable to integrate data from Diet Centre's four main departments. Therefore, the introduction of the new system is all compatible since they all can utilize the existing communication infrastructure. However, on-premises systems are highly customizability and offer greater control over data (Nakkeeran et al., 2021). In other words, the company’s internal IT staffs maintains the software as well handling its upgrades. In some of the cases, the comapny can outsource support of the comany to an outside IT service although the software is installed in their hardware (Arnesen, Spencer, 2019).  In the narrow sense, business can integrate its data from its departments perfectly.

Organizational feasibility

It entails the acceptability of the system by the users and its inclusion into the existing operations of the organization. Organizational feasibility is influenced by alignment with the business objective and the stakeholder analysis.

The incorporation of SAP on-premises in the operation of the Diet centre organization seems to be aligned with its business objective. With the company, the rapid growing operation is ideal for the company to integrate a large system into its operation to help the company avoid incurring high operation costs, excessive waste and unsatisfactory financial reporting. However, though the system seems the perfect fit for Diet Center it is too costly. On the other side, Noria cloud system and Noria on-premises are at a much lower cost. Furthermore, the systems are considered reliable and cost-effective in the Middle East Asia market with many users approving it. However, since Wazzan, CEO of Diet centre intention is to work with her close relative Jabri. Thus, the selection of the SAP on-premise is considered a business objective, since Jabri (SAP's sales manager) has recommended the migration to the SAP system.

Another key aspect of organizational feasibility is stakeholder analysis.  Arguably the introduction of the new system changes the dynamics of the system. Fundamentally, the roles of the stakeholder groups are bound to change depending on the type of the system. In this view, the selection of the on-premise system will have a slight change in the roles of the IT personnel.  For instance, the outsourcing of the IT services to maintain installed software will render some of the IT personnel jobless and therefore most likely to receive resistance. On the other hand, an on-premises system maintained by the company's personnel will have slight changes in the role of the experts.

Cloud system SaaS provide application and services on demand. Under this infrastructure, the IT infrastructure is established by a third party and made available to the customers (Scavo et al. 2012). Therefore, the role of the IT personnel is bound to change significantly.  With only manpower required to implement the system in the organization, the implementation of the system is bound to face enormous resistance.

 Economic feasibility

The aspect premise is on the identification of the costs and benefits associated with the selected ERP systems, assigning value to them and determining their financial viability. With the projected cash flow both inflows and outflows, SAP on-premises system', Noria on-premises system' and 'Noria cloud (SaaS) system' have a return on investment of 10%, 8.9% and 11% respectively. A higher return on investment means that the project benefits outweigh the project cost. With a higher return on investment, the SAP on-premises system appears to be the best system among the three ERP systems. On the break time, SAP on-premises system', Noria on-premises system' and 'Noria cloud (SaaS) system' is projected to be 2.6 years, 2.7 years and 2.5 years. Since the Noria cloud (SaaS) system’ is indicated to produce higher returns in the earliest, then the assumption is that the system is less risky compared to the rest.  Therefore, the SAp on-premise system though seems a large project is less risky compared to Noria on-premise system.

 Selection of cloud system

Based on the above feasibility analysis, it is clear that the Noria cloud system is the best suitable for Diet centre organization. Based on the technical feasibility, of SAP on-premises, though it is riskier since it takes a long, it will integrate all data from Diet Centre's four departments for centralized operations. According  to Rima et al., (2011)  cloud solutions spare users the expense of acquiring new hardware, implementation and maintenance. In other words scaling becomes cheaper. The selection is based on the fact that the Diet centre requires a full range of features in conjunction with highly flexible customization. Therefore, it is suitable for the organization since it has well-proven business processes.  under this review, the cloud system architecture is already implemented and downtime is fundamentally non-existence for cloud-system.

On the organizational feasibility, SAP on-premises are aligned with the objective and the requirement of the business.  It is a large system that will revolutionize the operation of the business to provide efficient handling of costs and waste. On contrast, the cloud system is not implemented by the comapny therefore some of the features may not be aligned with its objectives.

 On the economic feasibility, it is clearly the cloud system has a better economic feasibility over the on-premise system. It has the highest return value of 11% and the least on break value of 2.5 years.

Therefore, in choosing a new EPR system, the cloud system has made software more accessible  to companies and these systems have few drawbacks compared to on-premise, such as on-premise on supporting mobile (Link et al., 2015).

 

 

 Conclusion

Feasibility assessment is an important process in the selection of a suitable ERP system for the organization. Every organization depending on its attributes requires a different system. Therefore, the criteria employed not only indicate why the system is the best fit but avail of its shortcomings and probably suggestions on how to mitigate them. Diet centre to become reliable and cost-effective in its operations, it will have to implicate this system and concurrently still use the previous system since it will require more time.  Therefore, the incoporation of cloud system model provide solutions to current problems and also deal with market models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Arnesen, S. (2013). Is a cloud ERP solution right for you?. Strategic Finance, 94(8), 45-51.

Fincham, R. (2002). Narratives of success and failure in systems development. British Journal of Management, 13(1), 1-14.

Link, B., & Back, A. (2015). Classifying systemic differences between software as a service-and on-premise-enterprise resource planning. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.

Nakkeeran, A., Niranga, M., & Wickramarachchi, R. (2021). A Model for On-Premises ERP System and Cloud ERP Integration. Accessed: Aug, 28.

Rimal, B. P., Jukan, A., Katsaros, D., & Goeleven, Y. (2011). Architectural requirements for cloud computing systems: an enterprise cloud approach. Journal of Grid Computing, 9(1), 3-26.

Scott, T. (2002). Aligning your data collection and ERP implementation decisions. IT Papers, available at: www. unova. com/whitepaper_align. asp.

 

Question and answer (case study analysis)

 Case Analysis Assignment

A Model Answer is available for this assignment, but it will be released only after you have submitted, since otherwise your answer could be too similar to it.     

Word length: 750 words                                                     

Before you begin, read Writing your Case Analysis in Thinking about Writing (in TEXTBOOKS, in the left-hand menu, ). In the TEXTBOOKS tool, you can also read How to Write Your Case Study: Step by Step. 

Submission: 12-point font, default margins. When submitting on OWL, submit BOTH as a WORD attachment AND cut and paste your essay as an inline document.

Topic: students and the reading requirements of a Year 1 Writing course. (Do NOT do the topic which was discussed in the Lesson--the Dr. Cohen case on plagiarism.)

Characters: Dr. Sara Khan, course instructor; and 25 multilingual students who are taking the Writing course.

Writing 1002 is a half course taken by international students at Erewhon University in Ontario, Canada.  The course’s goal is to help students who use English as a second language, mainly for academic purposes, master two sets of skills key to university success in the Canadian context:

1. Critical thinking skills as defined by Canadian academics, that are not only applied to the Writing course tasks, but can also be transferred to other courses the students are enrolled in.
2. Writing skills, which include narrowing down a topic, choosing reliable academic research sources, making research notes, creating a strong argument, drafting a well-structured essay, using matter from the research sources to provide support for the main idea, and revising, editing, formatting, and submitting the essay on time.

There are multiple sections of the course. The common course outline given to students in these sections does not mention the importance of reading, or explain how reading skills interact with the thinking and writing skills that are put in the foreground. However, the course has a mandatory textbook with about 40 pages of academic essays, which students are expected to read. Another mandatory text is a writing handbook that describes the essay writing process, explains how to do research, how to cite sources in APA style, how to edit and format essays to prepare them for submission, and so on.  The readings are sequenced to support the writing skill that is being developed in each class: for example, if the writing is a reflective essay, the reading for that day provides a model of a reflective essay, and also tells the students how to brainstorm for their own essay, write a strong outline for it, and format it in APA style.

Dr. Sara Khan is in charge of teaching a section of this course. She is a seasoned instructor who has been teaching classes with multilingual students for over fifteen years. As she gives the second lecture of the term, and asks questions about the reading for that day (a short personal reflection essay), she realizes that more than half the class has not read the assigned reading. This slows down her lecture, since she has to explain or read out passages from the textbook that the students would be familiar with if they had done their reading. She is unable to complete the lesson she had planned for the class.

That evening, Dr. Khan reads the short written assignments that students submitted.  She realizes that since many students did not read the model essay, they have done a very poor job on the assignment. For instance, they have not understood what was meant by “reflection.” Their vocabulary is limited, and there is no paragraphing. Some sections of the assignment, in the case of five students, sound very strange; Dr. Khan infers that these students have done their thinking in their native languages (Hindi, Mandarin, Korean, and Arabic) and have used electronic translation apps (like Google Translate) to fill in these sections. Three students have also committed serious plagiarism: instead of talking about their own experiences, they have described experiences they could not possibly have had.  Dr. Khan feels upset as she realizes that if she were to give the students the marks they deserved, around 50% of the class would fail the assignment. 

Dr. Khan reflects that in recent years, students in general seem to be more distracted by electronic media. They are less willing to read the assigned texts. When she calls on them in class, they don’t seem to feel embarrassed by having to admit that they haven’t read the textbook. She finally asks the students individually why they read or didn’t read the textbook. They respond as follows:

• “I find English too hard. The words are difficult to understand.”
• “I enjoyed the readings about international students’ lives! The stories sound like mine.”
• “I am stressed out because my parents say they cannot pay my second term fees.”
• “I am on academic probation. I’m worried about my Business courses. The Writing course is not my priority.”
• “I like to read the essay model that I have to imitate—it is better than essay instructions.”
• “The textbook is so boring.”
• “I don’t think I need to know how to write an essay.”
• “I am interested in Social Work. I have to write a personal reflection for that class, so the reading was useful.”
• “I am homesick and just want to talk to my family on Skype. I can’t concentrate.”
• “Why should I read? I think the teacher’s job is to explain the textbook during class.”
• “I want to read, but my friends keep visiting me, and I don’t have time.”
• “I am addicted to video games. I play until 2 AM, and then I’m too sleepy to read.”
• “I’m going to read the textbook just before the exam, like I always did in my home country.”
• “In Delhi, I always did my reading with my friends. I have no friends here.”

The problem: What should Dr. Khan do, given that she really wants her students to succeed in the Writing course, and given the Canadian university’s norms for academic excellence?

There is no “correct answer” to this question. Your response can discuss measures to change student attitudes, or measures to change the course, or both.

Resource for theory: (you can read this article on OWL, in the TEXTBOOKS TAB, or simply use the summary below): The article is also attached below. 

Al-Hoorie, A. H. (2017). Sixty years of language motivation research: Looking back and looking forward. SAGE Open, 7(1), 1-11. doi:10.1177/2158244017701976.

 

Summary of the research in Al-Hoorie (2017), along with psychological theories of motivation:

Writing research shows that motivating students is key to getting uptake on academic tasks. In general, there are at least four different types of motivation:

• Intrinsic motivation: when a person does something because they find it interesting and enjoyable for its own sake. Researchers Boo et al. (2015) found that a key motivator in learning a new language is the image of the ‘ideal speaker’ in the learner’s head—the person s/he wants to be.
• Extrinsic motivation: when a person responds to an outside incentive like money or a bonus mark.
• Integrative motivation: when a person seeks the reward of inclusion in a group or community if they do something. R.C. Gardner observed that learners found it easier to learn a new language when they liked the people who spoke it, and wanted to associate with them. 
• Instrumental motivation: when a person does something in order to achieve a goal (graduation, a job, further study, etc.). Dornyei et al. have found that long-term goals are a key motivating factor for many language learners.

References

Gardner, R. C. (2010). Motivation and second language acquisition: The socio-educational

model. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a

      Publication surge and a changing landscape. System, 55, 145-157.

doi:10.1016/j.system.2015.10.006

Dörnyei, Z., Henry, A., Muir, C. (2016). Motivational currents in language learning:

      Frameworks for focused interventions. New York, NY: Routledge.

            Case Analysis: How to motivate students to read

                          Summary of Background

    In writing 1002, the first-year course for international students at Erewhon University in Ontario, more than half of the students did not complete the assigned reading—the course’s first assignment. To make students learn writing essays and prepare for the next class well, Dr. Sara Khan prepared several materials for students. The first one is a textbook with lots of academic essays and another one is also a textbook that teaches the students the process of writing essays. Although Dr. Sara Khan provided these fodders for students, they were not willing to finish the assigned homework and they behaved badly in their assignments.

             A problem for both students and the university

Because the majority of students did not read the model essay, they showed very bad performance on their assignment. Some students made errors that could be considered as the poor performance of their assignments because they did not read a model essay. Others did not aware of the importance of reading and they also ignored the purpose of this course is to develop critical thinking skills and writing skills. Dr. Sara Khan could help all students achieve the course learning outcomes by motivating them. He could guide students to set their long-term goals, which can make students study independently (Instrumental motivation, Al-Hoodie, 2017). Moreover, he could prepare a quiz to examine the degree of completion of assigned reading and count the mark in the final score, which Al-Hoorie (2017) would describe as Extrinsic motivation. Besides, he could divide the class into several groups to discuss the assigned reading and make students choose their partners by themselves, a strategy that motivates students integrally (Al-Hoorie, 2017). The combined responses of allowing students attach importance to the assigned reading through Instrumental motivation, Extrinsic motivation, and Integrative motivation, as it would motivate students to finish their assignments and aware of the importance of reading among the study.

                      Integrative motivation

 Setting groups would be beneficial, addressing the following response from one of Dr. Sara Khan’s students: “In Delhi, I always did my reading with my friends. I have no friends here.” Al-Hoorie (2017) indicated that it is easy to learn a new language when people talk with a person that they like. If setting the groups, Dr. Sara Khan should make students choose partners by themselves.

                     Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation through bonus marks or money can effectively make students study independently (Al-Hoorie, 2017), indicated by the response, “ I am going to read the textbook just before the exam like I always did in my home country.” Mark is important for students because it is related to their graduation. Thus, If Dr. Sara Khan uses the mark to motivate students, students are more willing to learn.

 Instrumental motivation

Dr. Sara Khan should also have a lesson to guide students to set long-term goals and make them form their schedules, indicated by the response, “I am addicted to video games. I play until 2 AM, and then I’m too sleepy to read.” and “ I want to read, but my friends keep visiting me, and I don’t have time.” According to Dornyei et al. (2016), “Long-term goals are a key motivating factor for many language learners.”

                       Recommended Solutions

Dr. Sara Khan should combine Instrumental motivation with Integrative motivation. From the responses of the majority of students, they indicated that they were influenced by external factors when they want to study and they wanted to communicate with other people about homework. If Dr. Sara Khan just uses outside incentives like money or bonus mark, the effect is just temporary. When this course ends, students will return to the original state. Therefore, students need to make their own short-term goals and long-term goals and schedule. Additionally, students should be given a chance to talk with others to express their thought.

               Conclusion: Some Notes about Implementation

  To implement the solution effectively, Dr. Sara Khan should have a lesson to explain how to set own schedule and goals by providing examples. After students set their own goals and schedules, Dr. Sara Khan should paste it on the wall, which can mention students to implement it. Besides, he also can build a group for students to share their daily life and progress of learning. Dr. Sara Khan should play the role of supervision and provide some awards for well-behaved students. Even if it is hard to change the habit, once changed, students can benefit from the rest of their lives. Moreover, divide the class into several groups would promote students to participate in class and finish homework well. Every group should be responsible for different functions of assigned reading. Then they are allowed to discuss in the class. When students discuss, Dr. Sara Khan can transfer a student from one group to another group and make this student explain to the group. This method can examine if students complete the assigned reading well and promote students to talk with others.

After discussion, students can understand the content well, then Dr. Sara Khan can provide a supplement for students based on their discussion. These ways can promote students to finish their assigned homework well and participate in the class actively. The most important thing is that students can aware of the necessity of reading and form their healthy schedule, which also can apply to lives and other university courses. 

 

Role of Trade in the World’s Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

Introduction

Should governments have restricted trade to enhance domestic supply of personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic?

During the early days of the coid-19 outbreak there were massive disruptions in the supply chain that caused a global shortage in the supply of protective equipments. Countries like china which are huge exporters of the products like surgical masks, respirators, gloves and hospital gowns reduced exports and also began importing. The United States also having major companies that supply these products worldwide also began experiencing shortages. Notably, many companies resorted to their domestic supplies to meet the rising demand of the medical products due to the increasing number of Covid 19 patients (Bown, 22). Most developing countries did not have many established manufacturers to produce this product since they initially relied on imports. Hence, medical research companies, private investors and the government had to develop the medical equipments locally by combining resources. The post Covid 19 period indicates that many nations across the world have increased their production capabilities in the medical field and hence domestic supply almost meets the demand. Therefore, during the Covid 19 period governments should have adopted restricted trade to meet their demand.

Notably, trade restriction, specifically in personal protective gears would have ensured that the major exporting countries like chain and United States would meet their local demand. On the other hand, the restriction would have enabled countries that import such products to develop their manufacturing capabilities to meet their demand. It is evident that the Covid 19 period influenced numerous policy making decisions across the world, majorly because the pandemic had significant social and economic impacts. This was a necessary measure to boost the supply of the medical equipments because major suppliers like china did not have the capacity to export. The corona virus began in Wuhan china, and the outbreak became a huge health concern that the country had to shut down some parts of the economy (Magablesh, 2021). The rising numbers of causality meant that the country could not export the personal protective equipment (PPE) as usually. Nations that dependence on china had to find alternative sources of supply, but the supply chain network for the PPE was significantly affected when the virus spread across the world. Therefore, an effective measure that some nations took included promoting local production. There nations that adopted trade restrictions in as way of promoting domestic supply and also because they could not get enough supplies from the international markets.

“China monthly export and import volumes of PPEs (million kgs) from 2018 – 2020”

Covid affected the international markets for PPEs adversely, for example china imported more than it exported which led to a huge disruption in supply chain networks. As per the figures above china exported plummeted in February 2020 which mimicked a similar seasonal reduction that occurred in 2018 which was associated to the Chinese Lunar Year. Notably, this is a huge i9ndication that the Covid 19 pandemic was enough justification for governments to adopt restricted trade to promote domestic supply both in the pandemic period and after (Bown, 2022). This could help countries cushion themselves against shortages of PPEs that come about due to supply chain disruption that occur due to pandemics. The development of the domestic manufatciri9ng sector due to governments adopting restricted trade in the production of PPE is also essential in economic recovery.

Is re-shoring the best approach to deal with shocks like Covid-19 or similar events?

Nations across the world have adopted off-shoring as s trade strategy whereby they move migrate manufacturing plants from developed economies to developing or underdeveloped economies. The aim is usually to enjoy the low cost production whereby they get to enjoy cheap labour, availability of raw materials and lower production cost. Notably, this was an effective trend up until the covid-19 pandemic occurred. The interruption of trade supply chain networks were adversely affected due to lockdowns, trade restrictions and partially closure of businesses. This meant that nations could not even get their product that they have produced in other nations, hence leading to shortages while the demand continued to increase (Vaughn & Weldzius, 2021). Notably, Covid 19 disruption in the supply chain networks has led many nations to rethink this trend, and the result is that some nations have begun re-shoring their manufacturing plants that have been offshore. The occurrence of the Covid pandemic exposed major vulnerabilities in the supply chain system, and this is because the effects touched on many nations. Hence, this is wake up call for nations in terms of policy making and preparedness for unexpected shocks of any magnitude.

Re-shoring is a response to the possible vulnerabilities that exists in global supply chain systems; hence it is an effective government policy that can get implemented to help in absorbing future economic shocks. The initiates can vary in nature, for example, re-shoring can include provision of information, and technical advice to organizations. It can also include provision of financial assistance to the re-shoring exercise, for instance, subsidies, tax credits and reduction of statutory deduction imposed on organizations. This is an approach that is effective and has been effectively utilized by some nations and the results have been encouraging. A look at the Germany’s industrie 4.0 initiative indicates that it is designed to develop and strengthen the domestic manufacturing sector (Magablesh, 2021). This program indirectly promotes off shoring, hence this proves that re-shoring is an effective approach that nations can adopt to enable economic recovery in the post Covid period. It is also a good policy to prepare nations for any economic shocks and supply chain disruption similar to the resulting effect of covid-19 pandemic.

There are many reasons that can make a country adopt the re-shoring policy, but the major one is the vulnerabilities in the supply chain network. Off shoring leads to overreliance on some trading partners, hence when a disruption occurs, the nations get affected significantly (De Ruyter, 2020). Re-shoring promotes diversification in the domestic market, hence there reduced reliance on external trade partners. It also ensures that the supply chain networks are shorter, unlike when a country has off shored most of its major manufacturing industries. Notably, a shorter supply chain implies reduced vulnerability and in the case of an economic shock, it is easier for the government to navigate because the government is only dealing with domestic trade partners (Vaughn & Weldzius, 2021). Studies also indicate that there is a huge correlation between the probabilities of countries adopting the re-shoring approach and the dependency on single external business partners. For instance, Japan has a high depends on countries like china, United States and Taiwan for its research and development as shown in the figure below. This explains the why there is a high supply chain vulnerability for Japan in the research and development sectors, and thus the need for off shoring.

What other policies should governments pursue to secure access to crucial medical goods during shocks?

The occurrence of the covid-19 pandemic acts as a learning moment for many governments, and this is in terms of policy development regarding supply and availability of medical equipments.  Shocks, such as Covid 19 had a large-scale effect across the world, and many nations had not prepared to meet the demand for the PPEs. There are number of polices that government can pursue to mitigate such shocks in the future.  These include increasing supplies in the strategic national stockpiles (Cohen & Van der Muelen, 2020). Medical related shocks often bring about unforeseen market failures whose immediate effect the breakdown if the supply chain system for international trade. This implies that governments will not be able to get supplies, especially PPEs to help contain the spread of viruses or bacteria. Having enough stock in the national stockpile will ensure that the medical sector get enough short-term supplies to keep the health sector sufficiently supplied before getting additional supplies. Notably, this should be part of the preparedness strategy that the government needs to make it a policy. Projection could be used determine the amount of supply to be kept as stockpile, for example, is 30% of Americans become ill with influenza, there would be a need to about 3.5 billion N95 respirators. The PPEs in the national stockpile should be effectively maintained to reduce cases of expiry before use.

Notably, another major policy that government need to adopt providing incentives for the production of PPEs through the utilization of the existing technology, but encourage the development of better reusable ones. This can get attained through research, testing and design of better quality medical products to develop capacity for future production. In essence, this is a policy that empowers domestic production which ensures the increased demand is met even if the supply chain networks for international produce has been disrupted. Allowing local producers to use available technology to make the PPEs also ensures that the private investors can get enough cash flow during early stages of the manufacturing process that they can use to fund research and development. In the long run, the policy will reduce overreliance on external trade partners who cannot meet the PPEs demand due to supply chain disruptions.

References

Bown, C. P. (2022). How COVID‐19 medical supply shortages led to extraordinary trade and industrial policy. Asian Economic Policy Review, 17(1), 114-135.

Magableh, G. M. (2021). Supply chains and the COVID‐19 pandemic: A comprehensive framework. European Management Review, 18(3), 363-382.

Vaughn, A., & Weldzius, R. (2021). Reshoring Global Supply Chains.

de Ruyter, A. (2020). Reducing the fragility of our supply chains after Covid-19: time for a policy rethink.

Cohen, J., & van der Meulen Rodgers, Y. (2020). Contributing factors to personal protective equipment shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preventive medicine, 141, 106263.