Communication measurement and evaluation has come a long way in just a decade.  Finally, measurement has become the watchword and “results, results, results” the mantra of executives. Instead of viewing an organization’s communication as a kind of mystical intangible — intangible methods, intangible effects and intangible results — we now measure everything in our effort to build strong relationships with key publics and contribute to our organization’s success. This crucial step has finally made us strategic.

• Read Chapter 12 in its entirety before you start your discussion post assignment.
• Re-examine the research methodologies identified in Chapter 3.
• Determine and discuss how each of the Primary Research areas covered on pages 55-59 in your textbook can be converted to an evaluation tool and would work best for Comcast 
• Discuss each of the following five areas:
  • Focus Groups (discuss this area in a minimum of a paragraph)
  • Copy and Product Testing (discuss this area in a minimum of a paragraph)
  • Psychographic Studies (discuss this area in a minimum of a paragraph)
  • Social Media Analytics (discuss this area in a minimum of a paragraph)
  • Survey Research and Opinion Sampling (discuss this area in a minimum of a paragraph)
• I AM LOOKING FOR SPECIFICS! DO NOT GIVE ME A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF WHAT EACH AREA CAN DO, RATHER SPECIFICALLY DETAIL HOW EACH OF THESE FIVE AREAS WILL BE USED TO BEST SUIT Comcast 

Use headers to identify each area 

Cite sources APA style 

 Write a 7–-page white paper that examines how academic work helps professional success, analyzes the requirements for psychology professionals, and develops an action plan to achieve professional goals. 

 A white paper originally referred to a government report and meant that the paper was authoritative and informative. White papers today have taken on a broader meaning and are used when a writer wants to make an argument for a specific position or propose a solution to a problem. Typically, the audience for a white paper is the general public seeking a solution to their problems or answers to their questions. 

Directions:

 

Within your white paper, include the following:

• Explain how enrolling in a master’s degree in psychology program will help you succeed professionally.
  • How will this program prepare you to help others in the area of psychology you plan to go into?
  • How do the expectations of you as a practitioner-scholar help prepare you for professional success?
  • What role will research play in your career, and what type of research do you want to do?
  • What insights did you gain from the research you conducted for Assessment 3?
• Analyze the requirements for a psychology professional.
  • Describe the skills and competencies needed to be successful in the field of psychology.
  • Explain the laws and policies that guide the practice of psychology.
  • Explain the ethical conduct expected of a psychology professional.
  • Outline the process to become a psychology professional, such as credentialing, certification, licensure, and so on.
• Compare the requirements to become a psychology professional with the skills and knowledge you already possess.
  • Where are the greatest gaps in knowledge?
  • What areas of concern do you have (if any)?
• Develop an action plan to achieve your professional goals. (Please focus on the major milestones and do not get lost in the enormous number of smaller steps that you might take.)
  • In addition to completing your Capella program, will you also participate in any additional training or volunteer opportunities?
  • Will you create opportunities in your current position that will help you build skill and knowledge?
  • What professional groups and organizations might you join to help with networking or informational interviews?
  • How will you stay current with the research and literature in the field? What resources will you use to help develop the competencies needed to be successful both professionally and academically?

Be sure you adhere to APA guidelines for style and formatting, and reference at least five resources that may include both scholarly literature and professional sources.

 

Additional Requirements

• Format: Include a title, page, abstract page, and reference page.
• Length: 7–9 pages, double-spaced.
• References: At least five current scholarly or professional resources.
• APA formatting: References and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 points.

 Develop either a training deck (12-15 slides) or training manual (3-4 pages) to ensure new hires have a solid understanding of income statements, balance sheets, and the elements that go into them.

Introduction

This portfolio work project will help you to not only better understand commonly used accounting tools, but it will also give you the opportunity to use your skills and experience by preparing training materials to train someone else.

Scenario

You work for an organization that is seeking growth and recently has hired new district managers to assist in this growth. In talking to other regional managers, you have heard that some district managers do not have a thorough understanding of commonly used accounting tools including an income statement and balance sheet. You have a new district manager hire, John, and see the need to do some training with him so he has a solid understanding of income statements, balance sheets, and the elements that go into them, including advertising costs, Web development costs, and store opening costs.

In preparing to train your new hire, you have determined that the use of examples (a picture is worth a thousand words) can be a great approach to use. So you have decided to gather some examples from the company’s summary of significant accounting policies from its latest financial statements.

You may apply this scenario to either Option 1 or Option 2, described in Requirements below.

Your Role

You are a regional manager for Urban Outfitters or your selected organization and oversee a number of districts. You have recently brought a new district manager on board and want to ensure he has the knowledge and tools needed to effectively do his job.

Requirements

Option 1:

The organization you work for is Urban Outfitters. Use the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website to find the Urban Outfitter’s 2016–2017 financial statement’s summary of significant accounting policies. Look at the data for 2015, 2016, and 2017 for the following examples of essential elements you need to cover with John and ensure his understanding.

• Advertising. Examine the criteria used to expense and capitalize advertising costs and where these costs appear in the financial statement.
• Store opening costs. Examine how store opening and organization costs were handled and where these costs appear in the financial statement.
• Website development costs. Examine the approaches taken during the application and infrastructure development stage and the planning and operating stage.

Option 2:

Use a firm or scenario of your choosing.

Before choosing a company, read the assessment thoroughly to ensure:

• The company fits the assessment requirements.
• You have access to the financial statement’s summary of significant accounting policies and the Note disclosures from which you are drawing your materials. Include this information in the appendix for reference.
• You can distribute the data without disclosing confidential company information.

Training Materials

As you prepare your training materials for John, use the examples you collected from the company’s Notes to financial documents to illustrate how you address the following items:

• Explain how one or more of the following costs are captured:
  • Advertising.
  • Store opening. If store opening costs were capitalized, over what time period would you amortize them? Explain why you selected this time period.
  • Website development.
• Analyze the importance of Notes to financial statements in interpreting financial statements.
• Explain how the accounting method the company uses affects the financial statements.
• Explain how the financial statements would differ if another method were used to capture the costs.
• If you have a preference for capitalizing or expensing these costs, explain why it is your preference.

Deliverable Format

Leadership has asked that you develop either a training deck or a training manual that you will use with John and that can be deployed with other new hires as well. Regardless of the format selected, the information should address the points identified above and with detailed explanations within the notes areas of slides or within the training manual text. It will also be helpful to include information in regard to why each item is important to the organization as well as the success of the new district manager.

To use your time and John’s time wisely, be conscientious about providing thorough yet concise information. These materials are expected to be used by others for future training needs, so make sure they are well organized and clear.

Training materials requirements:

• 12–15 slides for a training deck. Include additional details as slide notes.
• 3–4 pages for a training manual.

Related company standards for either format:

• The training manual is a professional document and should therefore follow the corresponding MBA Academic and Professional Document Guidelines, including single-spaced paragraphs.
  • To learn more about creating presentations, click “MBA Program Resources” and then “Presentation Skills.”
• In addition to the training deck or manual materials, include:
  • Title (slide or page).
  • References (slide or page).
  • Appendix with supporting materials. If you are using a firm or scenario of your choosing, ensure faculty has sufficient information to understand how you reached your recommendation.
• At least two APA-formatted references.

Evaluation

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Explain how accounting concepts and practices impact financial reporting.
  • Explain how the accounting method the company used affects the financial statements.
  • Compare how two accounting methods differ in their effects on the financial statements.
• Competency 4: Communicate financial information with multiple stakeholders.
  • Communicate accounting information clearly.

Your argumentative essay will be on an environmental topic from the list of options below. Consider your audience for this paper to be your peers. The essay should be between 3 ½ and 4 pages (850 to 1,000 words) in length, not including the cover page, abstract, or reference page. In this paper, you will be demonstrating your ability to synthesize information from different into a coherent argument that is properly documented. Your paper should be double spaced in Times New Roman 12 point font and must include:

• An introduction, a minimum of 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion
• a clearly articulated thesis that states the claim, position, or stance that your essay will prove in the introduction to your paper
• 4 cited sources, at least 2 of these sources should come from the MDC databases
• At least 4 quotes from your sources
• Topic sentences that focus the discussion in the body paragraphs
• Examples, details, and explanations, and other researched evidence in the body paragraphs that clearly support the claim of your thesis
• Counterarguments and refutations that show you understand the complexity of your argument and can accurately acknowledge the views of the opposition and refute them
• Clear connections between ideas from paragraph to paragraph and within paragraphs (coherence)
• Proper APA style format in the cover page, in the abstract, in the in-text citations, and in the Reference page (see the template and instructional video for creating the APA format)
• Reference page listing a minimum of four sources
• Standard usage, grammar, and mechanics

Important Information

• You will submit your final draft through the Turn-it-in drop box designated for this purpose in the course. Please be aware, that although Turn-it-in does allow for similarities for quotations of up to 24%, any similarity above 24% is considered too high for an original paper and will be flagged as plagiarism.
• You can get help with your paper at any of the campus writing centers, and you can also receive online help via SmartThinking, the online tutoring service provided by the College. This service is available by clicking on SmartThinking in the left-hand menu bar of the course under Tools & Resources.

Choose ONE of the following topics for your paper. Each topic provides an article you can read to get started on your research.

1. Research alternative energy sources; then make an argument for the three most desirable ones to introduce in South Florida. Here is a link with a list of renewable energy resources to get you started:
   https://www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/alternative-energy-sources/.
2. Research the status of sea-level rise in South Florida today and the ways in which it is being addressed through State processes. Make an argument that the solutions today are or are not sufficient. Here is a link to a web page that will help you get started with your research:
   https://sealevelrise.org/states/florida/.
3. Research the effects of the environment on human health. Does the health of the environment affect the health of the human beings within it? Make an argument that supports your answer. Start your research by reading this article: https://orionmagazine.org/article/beyond-the-patient/.
4. Should access to drinking water be privatized? Start your thinking about this topic by watching this short video:
   https://storyofstuff.org/movies/the-story-of-water/.
5. Where does recycled plastic end up? What solutions to “plastic pollution” are most feasible? Start your thinking on this topic by watching the videos on this page:
   https://www.storyofplastic.org/watch.
6. How is biodiversity important to a thriving planet? What are the dangers of the high rate of species extinction that the planet is facing? What are the proposed solutions to this problem and how effective will they be? Start your research by reading this article:
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/05/06/one-million-species-face-extinction-un-panel-says-humans-will-suffer-result/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.98fc33bfad58.
7. Are electric vehicles better for the environment? Start your research by reading this article from Forbesmagazine:
   https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/05/20/are-electric-vehicles-really-better-for-the-environment/#5609f23876d2.
8. What are the effects of consumerism on the environment? What must be done to address the problem? Start your research by reading this article from Science Daily:
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160224132923.htm.
9. The government makes the claim that using public transportation has positive effects on the environment
   (See: https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/environmental-programs/transit-environmental-sustainability/transit-role); however, in South Florida, efforts to develop more efficient public transportation has been less than successful. Research the reasons for the failure of public transportation in South Florida. 
10. What are the environmental effects of our agricultural practices? What are some solutions to these problems? Start your research by looking at this web page from the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota: http://www.environmentreports.com/how-does-agriculture-change/#section2
    and this article about the threat to food resources:
    https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/climate-change-threatens-the-worlds-food-supply-united-nations-warns/ar-AAFwd8r.
11. Overpopulation is among the top environmental problems facing the world today. What is the connection between educating women, supporting family planning, and reducing the risks of overpopulation? Should educating women be a priority on the world stage? Start your research by reading this editorial:
    https://www.wired.com/story/to-stop-climate-change-educate-girls-and-give-them-birth-control/.
12. What are the effects of urban sprawl on the environment? Should the government institute strong regulations to curb urban sprawl? Start your research by reading the information here:
    http://www.everythingconnects.org/urban-sprawl.html.
13. What are the environmental effects of deforestation? What should be done to solve the problem of deforestation? Start your research by reading this article from National Geographic:
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/.
14. How does our overreliance on fossil fuels damage the environment? What are the advantages of ending our reliance on fossil fuels? Make a capitalist argument against the fossil fuel industry. Start by reading the following opinion article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/16/capitalism-climate-change-risks-profits-china.
15. Despite the disasters at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants, some still make the argument that nuclear power is a more feasible alternative to fossil fuels than other alternative energies. Make an argument for or against the feasibility of nuclear power. Here are the arguments made by the World Nuclear Association:
    http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/the-nuclear-debate.aspx.

Here are some general websites that might provide some useful data for your research:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laws and Regulations:
  https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Data:
  https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling.
• World Bank Data:
  https://data.worldbank.org/topic/environment.
• United Nations Environment Program:
  https://www.unenvironment.org/regions/north-america.
• 350.org:
  https://350.org/science/.
• NASA on climate change:
  https://climate.nasa.gov/.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
  https://www.ipcc.ch/about/.