Unlike the Toulmin and Rogerian methods where one side is argued over another, the Middle Ground argument mediates between two sides of an issue hopefully arriving at a compromise solution between two positions. 

Please include both answers in one initial post with extra space between them.

 Middle Ground Discussion:  For this discussion, choose an issue that you wrote about previously in this course (either your Toulmin or Rogerian essay). Let the class know your previous claim and briefly how you proved this claim in your essay. After this brief review discussion, discuss how you would have approached this particular topic if you were to write a Middle Ground argument, instead of a Toulmin or Rogerian argument. Would you have adjusted your claim? If so, what sort of adjustment would you need? Would you have to find additional sources about your topic in order to prove this new claim? Is a middle ground solution a more practical solution to your chosen issue?  
 

In your responses to your classmates on the Middle Ground discussion, let your classmate know which argument appears to be stronger: the original claim or the new middle ground claim. Please make sure to explain why. If you disagree with both claims, that’s fine – let your classmate know why you disagree in a bias-free manner.
 

Concluding Remarks: Secondly, during this course, you have read quite a few arguments, critiqued some of these arguments, and written essays using various methods of argumentation.  Take a moment to consider your future courses at APUS and/or your current/future career field.  How can you incorporate what you have learned into your career or education?  

In your responses to your classmates on their concluding remarks, feel free to compare your approach to your classmates.  You may also help students find additional ways to use argumentation/persuasion in their chosen educational/career field.

*****Needs to be in MLA 

Assignment Expectations:

a.  Chose (2) readings and address (2) concepts (A and B) in about 150 words each.

b.  You will be graded on how well you demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concept, and critical thinking pertaining to the applicability of the concept to your professional practice. Points awarded will follow breakdown below.

2.  The Assignment: Given the readings below identify and discuss two concepts or lessons learned that you believe will be most applicable to your professional discipline.

3.  Concept A (points 10/20):

1.  Identify /define (points 4/20): ……

2.  Your professional discipline: ……..

3.  How applicable (points 6/20): ……

4.  Concept B (points 10/20):

0.  Identify /define (points 4/20): ……

1.  Your professional discipline: ……..

2.  How applicable (points 6/20): ……

Readings:

Blumenthal, D., Chernof, B., Fulmer, T., Lumpkin, J., & Selberg, J. (2016). Caring for high-need, high-cost patients—an urgent priority. New England Journal of Medicine, 375(10), 909-911.

Bridger, C. M., Smith, S. E., & Saunders, S. T. (2017). Saving lives and saving money: The role of North Carolina health departments in Medicaid managed care. North Carolina Medical Journal, 78(1), 55-57.

Cleverley, W. O., & Cleverley, J. O. (2017). Essentials of health care finance. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Hines, A. L., Raetzman, S. O., Barrett, M. L., Moy, E., & Andrews, R. M. (2017). Managed care and inpatient mortality in adults: Effect of primary payer. BMC Health Services Research, 17 doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2062-1

Keast, S. L., Skrepnek, G., & Nesser, N. (2016). State Medicaid programs bring managed care tenets to fee for service. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 22(2), 145-148.

Hines, A. L., Raetzman, S. O., Barrett, M. L., Moy, E., & Andrews, R. M. (2017). Managed care and inpatient mortality in adults: effect of primary payer. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1), 121.

Hu, T., Decker, S. L., & Chou, S. Y. (2016). Medicaid pay for performance programs and childhood immunization status. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 50(5), S51-S57.

Hurley, L. P., Lindley, M. C., Allison, M. A., Crane, L. A., Brtnikova, M., Beaty, B. L., . . . Kempe, A. (2017). Primary care physicians’ perspective on financial issues and adult immunization in the era of the affordable care act. Vaccine, 35(4), 647-654. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.12.007.

Lwembe, S., Green, S. A., Tanna, N., Connor, J., Valler, C., & Barnes, R. (2016). A qualitative evaluation to explore the suitability, feasibility and acceptability of using a ‘celebration card’ intervention in primary care to improve the uptake of childhood vaccinations. BMC Family Practice, 17(1), 101. doi:10.1186/s12875-016-0497-9.

Nierengarten, M. B. (2017). Mental health services in primary care. Contemporary Pediatrics, 34(3), 30-34.

Richard, D. (2017). What is next for behavioral health in managed care? North Carolina Medical Journal, 78(1), 30-32. doi:10.18043/ncm.78.1.30

Williams, M. O., Gilroy, J. R., Chang, T. Y., & Seymour, D. J. (2017). Challenges for insured patients in accessing behavioral health care. The Annals of Family Medicine, 15(4), 363-365.

Mira, J. J., Nuño-Solinís, R., Guilabert-Mora, M., Solas-Gaspar, O., Fernández-Cano, P., González-Mestre, M. A., . . . Río-Cámara, M. d. (2016). Development and validation of an instrument for assessing patient experience of chronic illness care. International Journal of Integrated Care, 16(3) doi:10.5334/ijic.2443

Restorick Roberts, A., Betts Adams, K., & Beckette Warner, C. (2017). Effects of chronic illness on daily life and barriers to self-care for older women: A mixed-methods exploration. Journal of Women & Aging, 29(2), 126-136.

 

nstructions

Waterways (Chapter 19) 

For this assignment, you will apply what you have learned  from the unit        lesson and required unit resources. The Waterways (WP19) case is  located on       page 19-39 of the textbook. 

Waterways Corporation is a private corporation  formed for  the purpose of      providing the products and the services needed to  irrigate farms,  parks,       commercial projects, and private lawns. It has a  centrally located  factory in    a U.S. city that manufactures the products it  markets to retail  outlets       across  the nation. It also maintains a division that  performs  installation      and  warranty servicing in six metropolitan areas. 

The  mission of Waterways is to manufacture quality parts  that can be used     for  effective irrigation projects that also conserve water. By  that effort,     the  company hopes to satisfy its customers, perform rapid and  responsible       service,  and serve the community and the employees who represent  them in each    community. 

 The company has been growing rapidly, so management is  considering new       ideas  to help the company continue its growth and maintain the  high quality      of  its products. 

Waterways was founded by Will Winkman, who is the company  president  and       chief executive officer (CEO). Working with him from the company’s  inception      is  Will’s brother, Ben, whose sprinkler designs and ideas about the        installation  of proper systems have been a major basis of the company’s        success.  Ben is the  vice president who oversees all aspects of design and        production in  the  company. 

The factory itself is managed by Todd Senter, who  hires  his line managers     to supervise the factory employees. The factory makes  all of  the parts for      the  irrigation systems. The purchasing department is  managed by  Helen Hines.           

The installation and training division is overseen by  vice  president, Henry   Writer, who supervises the managers of the six local  installation operations.    Each of these local managers hires his or her own  local  service people. These    service employees are trained by the home office  under  Henry Writer’s       direction because of the uniqueness of the company’s  products. 

There is a small human resources department under the  direction of  Sally      Fenton, a vice president who handles the employee paperwork,  though  hiring is    actually performed by the separate departments. Teresa Totter  is the  vice      president who heads the sales and marketing area; she oversees 10  well-trained    salespeople. 

The accounting and finance division of the company  is  headed by Ann       Headman, who is the chief financial officer (CFO) and a  company  vice       president; she is a member of the Institute of Management  Accountants and        holds a certificate in management accounting. She has a small  staff of        accountants, including a controller and a treasurer, and a staff of  accounting    input operators who maintain the financial records. 

A partial list  of Waterways’ accounts and their balances  for the month of     November is itemized  below. 

  Accounts Receivable $275,000  Advertising Expenses 54,000   Cash 260,000  Depreciation – Factory       Equipment 16,800  Depreciation –  Office Equipment 2,400  Direct Labor 42,000  Factory Supplies Used 16,800  Factory Utilities 10,200  Finished Goods Inventory,  November       30   68,800   Finished Goods Inventory,  October       31  72,550  Indirect Labor  48,000    Office Supplies Expense   1,600   Other Administrative Expenses 72,000    Prepaid  Expenses 41,250  Raw Materials Inventory,  November       30  52,700   Raw Materials Inventory,  October       31  38,000   Raw Materials Purchases 184,500  Rent – Factory Equipment 47,000   Repairs – Factory Equipment 4,500  Salaries  325,000  Sales Revenue    1,350,000   Sales  Commissions   40,500   Work in Process Inventory,  October       31 52,700  Work in Process Inventory,  November       30  42,000  

Instructions: 

• Based on the information given, construct an organizational chart of the                        Waterways Corporation. You may create the organizational    chart     in           Microsoft       Word or Excel. 
• A list of accounts and their values are given above. From this                        information, prepare a cost of goods manufactured schedule, an income                        statement, and a partial balance sheet for the month of      November,   which       should           be created using Excel. 

If you elect to  create your organizational chart in a Word  document, then     you will need to  submit both a Word document (containing the  organizational     chart) and an Excel  document (containing the cost of goods  manufactured       schedule, income statement,  and partial balance sheet). If you  elect to       create  your organizational chart in  Excel, you will only submit an  Excel       document,  which would contain all  components of the  assignment. 

APA  formatting is not necessary.   

 

Introduction

The final course deliverable is an extensive real-world project: an individual leadership portfolio. This portfolio will yield a product for you to share with prospective or current employers in order to enhance your employment possibilities and promotion potential. The portfolio is the second of two deliverables comprising the assessment; a Personal Leadership History Report (discussed in the section below) is due first and leads to the Personal Leadership Portfolio.

The course project promotes your development and personal commitment to the required knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required for understanding, assimilating, and demonstrating professional public safety leadership. In preparing your portfolio, you will have the opportunity to review leadership from a historical and an operational perspective and will be able to evaluate your own leadership style and effectiveness.

Completion of the course-long personal leadership project solidifies foundation KSAs in order to:

• evaluate decision making in relation to historic and current issues in public safety through case studies and simulation
• explain the relationship between successful leadership, organizational development, and technology and the way these factors affect decision making
• discuss the importance of ethics, globalization, systems thinking, proactive leadership, and leader-follower relationships to successful leadership in public safety
• identify and discuss the major leadership theories and concepts applicable to public safety
• explain the importance of leadership in organizational processes and change
• cite examples of successful leadership styles and techniques in progressive public administration
• complete case study reviews and an operational simulation based on major public safety issues
• identify future public safety challenges and potential solutions
• synthesize your learning experience in your major discipline to apply the knowledge and skills to practical individual and organizational challenges

The Leadership Development Project Process

The project is a course-length process managed using specified development steps that correlate with specific course materials. Aspects of this process will be addressed in the course conferences each week. The first of the two project deliverables is the personal leadership history report. 

Personal Leadership Portfolio

The final course deliverable, the Personal Leadership Portfolio, is created by incorporating targeted leadership knowledge development, self-assessment assignments, and homeland security or public safety leadership analysis. The portfolio represents a personal understanding and plan of public safety leadership based on the course research, module content, discussions, reports, simulation, and your leadership performance.

The process requires weekly demonstration of leadership knowledge development through conference discussion opportunities and leadership self-assessment assignments. The submissions are assessed for accuracy and completeness against project requirements and ensure that the development of leadership knowledge, assessment, and analysis provides a maximum foundation for the sequential portfolio development. The completed personal leadership portfolio correlates with professional homeland security and public safety leadership best practices, resulting in a tangible product that can become a base for future leadership development.

> Assessment Sequence

The project is made up of sequential steps that constitute the required actions of semester-long portfolio development. The process assessment utilizes a recommended portfolio document structure.

1.   Gather—the gathering of course and outside leadership materials and resources.
2.   Research—narrowing the focus of academic and anecdotal leadership topics to professional homeland security or public safety leadership topics.
3.   Organize—establish an information-handling process in order to coordinate resources, sources, and gathered data. Monitor for policy topic research completeness through use of an information-handling and organization process.
4.   Analyze and evaluate—compare, contrast, and judge resource material to develop cogent documentation.
5.   Assess—assimilate personal leadership history report results with cogent documentation, demonstrating the nexus between personal leadership history and data with academic and anecdotal resources. This step may also include assessing past leadership opportunities for lessons learned.
6.   Apply—based on steps 1-5, determine personal leadership styles and traits and how the determination can be applied in a professional homeland security or public safety setting. This step will also include personal leadership strengths and challenges for future development.
7.   Create a personal leadership development plan for your future in public safety.

> Personal Leadership Portfolio Document Structure and Content Topics

The body of the Personal Leadership Portfolio shall be at least 12 pages, excluding other material such as the cover page, table of contents, abstract, graphics and tables, and references.  The paper shall be presented in APA (6th edition) format, all margins should be 1”, 12 point font, and be in either Arial or New Times Roman font style. In the following descending order of preference, information sources must be either peer-reviewed articles, government reports, or other sources approved by your instructor. Internet information sources from other than authoritative sources are discouraged. See the Personal Leadership Portfolio grading rubric for more information. The personal leadership portfolio shall cover all of the following topics:

• presentation and discussion of academic and anecdotal resource materials
• deconstruction of current homeland security or public safety leadership
• identification of acceptable and effective professional homeland security or public safety leadership principles
• collation of data from personal leadership self-assessment assignments
• comparison and contrast of self-assessment data, to include applicability, with best practices and identified leadership principles
• presentation and discussion of future personal leadership development and opportunity

The completed personal leadership portfolio correlates with professional homeland security and public safety leadership best practices, resulting in a tangible product that can become a base for future leadership development.

Write ONE paragraph ONLY! Responding to this discussion.

Do this by: Communicating a central idea or point that builds on the post of a peer. Asking questions, offering thoughtful ideas, or Sharing personal connections that relates the posts. 

Discussion Post:

I personally shop at Aldi and am overall satisfied with them. I think their business model is smart and has allowed them to continue to grow in the US market. Requiring customers to put a quarter into the shopping cart to get one requires them to return the cart to the parking spot to get their quarter back. This eliminates the need for employees to go out to the parking lot and retrieve carts so they can focus on stocking products and checking customers out at the registers. They also do not stock the shelves like a standard grocery store and instead leave products in their original bulk packages/boxes and customers can pull from them. This also reduces cost and allows employees to focus on other things. The biggest benefit is the overall low cost of products, which is a direct result of the strategies I just mentioned.

I think one thing Aldi could do to modify its business-level strategy is to focus more on employee training and pay employees a little more. I have been to multiple Aldi locations and I typically have had a poor experience with the employees. They are not very friendly and are too focused on stocking and not helping customers. They are also too much in a hurry when they are checking you out and often just toss your items back into the cart at checkout. If employees are paid more and receive more training on customer service, it would make my overall experience better.

Looking at the five business-level strategies discussed in Chapter 4, I believe the one that most applies to Aldi is the Cost Leadership strategy. They have implemented effective relationships with suppliers and have limited the number of non-Aldi brands, which helps build and solidify those relationships, and helps Aldi achieve economies of scale with those products. Their operation is efficient, and processes are focused on reduced cost and increase efficiencies. As the text states, Aldi only advertises using its own resources and only has a few commercials and utilizes inserts in sales fliers – all targeted marketing techniques that are focused on cost.

I think that if Aldi switched over to the Differentiation strategy customers would be more satisfied. As mentioned before, they should focus more on employee training, which is true of the differentiation model. The technological investment piece of this strategy would also benefit the customer experience by possibly making the checkout process even easier. I recently used the in-store shopping app at Wegmans where you scan each of your items and put them into your own bags as you shop. When you are ready to check out, you simply scan a barcode on the screen at the self-checkout area, pay for your items, and leave. Your groceries are already bagged, exactly how you want them, and you do not have to wait in line. This type of technology investment for Aldi would absolutely help improve the customer experience.